


Things Handed Down

by TheKnittingLady



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-06
Updated: 2013-02-24
Packaged: 2017-11-28 11:25:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 33
Words: 51,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/673854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheKnittingLady/pseuds/TheKnittingLady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes the hardest thing to see is what has been in front of you all along.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family.
> 
> \- George Bernard Shaw

**Chapter one**

**Union Station**   
**Washington DC**

**Hotch**

"They found JJ's car." Morgan told him as he hung up the phone. "It's in a lot about five miles from here. Forensics is on their way now."

"Go." Hotch told him. "I want everything." He didn't have to tell him the details, Morgan knew.

"See." Rossi told him, "I told you they didn't disappear into thin air. There will be something. We'll find them."

Hotch looked around the busy station. Reid and JJ had not shown up for work this morning. No calls, no e-mail, nothing, very much unlike them. When he became impatient he'd asked Garcia to track Reid's phone, only to find it here, buried in a dumpster, with his gun and ID. And in the same pile were JJ"s things. Not a good sign, not at all. "We'd better."

* * *

 

**Somewhere Else**   
**Spencer**

Spencer Reid opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling. He hurt. It seemed like every part of him was some sharp sort of ache, a not unfamiliar ache, just sharper than normal. He closed his eyes and tried to get his muscles to relax again.

A moment later he opened his eyes. That was not the right ceiling.

Slowly he sat up and looked around. The room he was in looked to be in was small, concrete all around, even the ceiling. Light was coming from industrial style fixtures places around the edges of the room, the kind in wire cages designed not to be broken. From here he could see that the room was L-shaped. He was sitting on the floor close to the corner. Looking down the long axis he could see what looked like a kind of a stove, just past it a small treadmill and some kind of shelves. On the other side three small doors fitted into one of the walls and three bags resting side by side on the floor. Looking down the short axis he could see a tiny, self-contained, railroad style bathroom with a shower right above the toilet. In the wall just outside the bath was a sink that could be rotated into the wall. Behind him was a bed, frame, mattress, no bedding.

He could sense there was a figure on it.

He rolled about, bracing himself against the wall until he could make it to his feet. The ache shifted and increased, and he realized that it was not unfamiliar because he'd felt it before. He'd been developing a bit of arthritis in the knee that had been shot a handful of years before, and it had been throwing his muscles off. This muscle tightens to protect the joint, then that tightens in response then another set of muscles tightens in response to that and soon enough you just ache all over. This particular ache spoke of too much time on a cold, concrete floor covered with a thin layer of glued on carpeting. The spinning in his head and the clench in his stomach spoke of some kind of drug. Realizing that, he was grateful for the ache, it meant whatever the drug was it wasn't narcotics.

When he realized who was on the bed he dropped to the edge of it and let the spinning pass a bit.

When the world stopped moving he reached over and brushed the long, sunlight gold strands of hair away from her lovely face, before checking her pulse. Yes, JJ was still alive, only still out cold. For all that he was not heavy she was lighter and would take longer to process out the drug. Why was she here? Why had she been taken? He remembered heading for the bus stop, crossing an alley, the crunch of a footstep on snow, some movement then…. Must have jumped me, he thought, some kind of injection, quick-acting sedative maybe, he thought, that would explain a bit of amnesia. His attention was pulled back when she shifted a little, clearly starting to come out of it. They were both still fully dressed, thank God, having only lost coats and scarves, that sort of thing, all of which were gone.

When she shifted again he saw the bit of cotton taped to the inside of her elbow. That was disquieting. He eased it off gently, knowing what he would find; a small puncture mark over a vein, a droplet of dried blood on the cotton. Given or taken, he wondered?

He finally thought to look at his watch. He'd been out very nearly 24 hours.

We could be anywhere, he realized.

He had been working his knee as he sat there, and had finally gotten it to stretch enough to let him rise and head to the small washroom. He did what wanted doing, used the cup chained to the wall to drink deeply, and then headed back to the main room. A quick inspection revealed that the small pile of luggage was indeed their go-bags, as well as his satchel. No cell phone, of course, no gun and no penknife, but at first glance everything else looked to be there. He took his contact lens things to the washroom, switched to his glasses, and then put the kit away before going to sit by JJ again I should check out the room, he thought, I will in a moment. But, for now, he just wanted to watch her a moment more.

A loud whack from the far end of the room made him jump. It made JJ jump as well. She looked around, blinking, confusion clear on her face. "Spence. Whzzit…?"

"Shh. Just stay here. Don't move." The small doors in the wall further down had revealed themselves to be a very small washer and dryer, mounted in the wall, and a third that had no way of opening. It now revealed itself to be a drawer much like the ones in a secure prison cell. A secure pass, and a fairly large one. It appeared to only be able to be opened and closed from the other side. Spencer eased over, gave it a good look, and then looked inside.

The only thing in there was a note.

_Give me what I want._


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter two**

**Somewhere Else**   
**JJ**

JJ had managed to shake off the lingering effects of the drug and the fear of what could be in her veins after a few minutes and her own trip to the washroom. She came out only to find Spencer standing right beside the door. "What is it?"

"Up there." He pointed to the far end of the long axis. Up in the corner was a surveillance camera, and the red light was on. They were being watched.

That was a disturbing development. "Do you think he can hear us too?" She asked.

"I don't know." Spencer replied. "I checked the room over, and will again, but I don't see a door."

JJ frowned at that. "You mean the door is locked." Of course it would be.

"No, come here." He led her a few steps into the open space on the long axis and indicated the wall. Sure enough, the concrete blocks didn't quite match the rest of the room. "I think we've been sealed in here."

"Well that's… unnerving." The ramifications of that were difficult to consider. "How are we getting air in here then?"

"Ducts," he pointed to some grill work high on the wall. "I already tried to move the bed to get a better look, but it's bolted down. All of the furniture is." The bed was in the corner of the L, in clear view of the camera. Only the small bathroom was private, and it barely fit one person, let alone two. "So is this, and it's sealed." He indicated the small stove, which now had a merry fire going behind the glass. "It appears to be gas. At least it's warming the place." It was, and giving off a cheery glow to boot.

"So, with the exception of food we're pretty self-contained, if going to be very bored." JJ looked around once more and then went to sit on the bed as Spencer returned to what was probably a micro inspection of the walls. "Give him what he wants? What does he want?"

"I don't know yet." Spencer replied. "He hasn't been more specific. How do you feel?"

"Physically? Fine." If she had been given something, she thought, it doesn't seem to be having an effect. "Okay, what happens if we don't give him what he wants?"

Before Spencer could answer the lights went out, leaving the room lit only by the flames in the small stove. A moment later those died as the gas went, leaving them in pitch black darkness. "JJ?" He called out. A moment more and a ferocious banging came from the walls. "JJ!" He called again, a note of panic rising in his voice.

He's afraid of the dark, she remembered. "It's okay, Spence, I'm right here. That's a water hammer; he just turned the water off." He's listening, she thought, that was a reply. "Okay, what happens if we do give you what you want?" She called out to the room. A moment later and the lights came back on, nearly blinding them. Then the flames leapt in the stove, and there was the hissing sound of the pipes filling up again. JJ watched as Spencer ever so slightly relaxed. "So if we do what he wants, he keeps the lights and heat on and the water flowing. Don't do what he wants and we can die of hypothermia and dehydration in the dark."

"Very effective," Spencer murmured as he looked around again. "So what do you want?"

In reply the drawer whacked shut again. After a long pause it eased open. Going to look they found two dinners, labeled "JJ" and "Spencer". A bit of investigation revealed some kind of beef dish, greens, salads, rolls and butter, and glasses of milk. No forks or knives though, everything was pre-cut, and chopsticks were provided. "I guess he wants us to eat."

Spencer held up the chopsticks with a rueful smile. "I hope this isn't an essential part of his fantasy." He looked in the drawer again.

JJ couldn't help but chuckle at him. "Use your fingers if you have to. I forgive you this time."

He looked into the drawer again, like he was hoping for a fork. "Okay he's done a little too much homework here." He held up a small packet, "Lactose enzymes."

"So this isn't random." She stated.

"Probably not."

They settled on the bed, for lack of anywhere else to sit, and settled down to a meal that turned out to be far more tasty than anticipated. "Okay, as bad as this is, at least this guy can cook." JJ admitted quietly as she licked a bit of the sauce from the beef off the end of her chopsticks.

"I'll say. These rolls are still warm from the oven. Real butter too."

"And whole milk. We might need that treadmill. Do you think this has anything to do with the last case we were working on?"

"No, I don't think so." With that Spencer was off and running, plumbing that amazing brain of his, putting together bits and clues from the case with what he knew of aberrant psychology to start a profile right there over the meal. JJ listened, fascinated. It always amazed her, how vast his mind truly was. She swore sometimes she could listen to him for hours on end. Between that and the crackling fire and the pleasantness of the meal for a moment or two she actually managed to forget that they were trapped by an Unsub.

But when she reached the bottom of her glass she was jolted back to that reality. She went to take the last swallow only to find a small lump of thick matter in the bottom, slowly dissolving into the milk. "Spence," she said calmly, even as her pulse tripled.

"What?"

She turned the glass so he could see the pill mostly melted in the bottom. "I've…I've been drugged."

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter three**

**BAU Headquarters**   
**Quantico, VA**   
**Hotch**

Hotch looked up as Morgan came into the room. It had taken the better part of the first day to wrest the case from DC Metro, but they finally gave it over to the FBI. Strauss had tried to put up an objection but he had loosed Rossi on her, "Anything?"

Morgan nodded. "They found some residue that turned out to be an inhaled sedative and the back window was broken. I'm thinking he hid a device in her car, and set it off when she got in, then broke in and drove away with her."

"How long would she have been out?" Emily asked.

"Up to twenty-four hours." Morgan replied.

"So they could be anywhere." Rossi grumbled.

Hotch turned and glared at the map. It had already been over 24 hours, and the search area had just widened considerably. He had no doubt that they would find the missing members of this team, but this was going to take time.

And that meant he had to make a phone call he did not want to make.

* * *

 

**Somewhere Else**   
**JJ**

They stared in horror at the small, melting pile a long moment. "What is it?" JJ finally asked.

"I don't know." Spencer replied. "There's no way to tell. We'll just have to see what the effects are."

"Would throwing up do any good at this point?"

"Probably not, we took our time eating; it's had ample time to enter your bloodstream by now."

"Great." I might throw up anyway, she thought, as her stomach knotted. "Do you think he killed me?" I really don't want to die, she thought, I really don't want to die.

"Why would he go through all this trouble to kill you now?" Spencer countered.

"Good point." JJ had to give him that much; "Maybe just a sedative?"

Spencer considered that a moment, then drained the rest of his milk and looked in the bottom of the glass, "Nothing. If he did I'll…protect you."

As best he could, JJ thought. She knew that, and odds were the Unsub did as well, probably not either of those. "I guess there's nothing to do but wait; is there?"

"Basically," Spencer looked around again. "What do you want to do with the plates?"

In response to that the drawer whacked open again. They just looked at each other and then went and stacked the plates and such in the drawer. When they were done it whacked closed again. "So, what do you want to do while we wait to see if I live or die?" JJ asked him, all due nervous tension in her voice. While she waited to hear his answer she went and started poking through her bag. If she was going to die, she thought, she might as well die comfortable.

"JJ" Spencer said in a way clearly meant to be comforting. But before he could say anything else the drawer whacked open again.

They looked inside and found a removable computer drive, one that looked to have a large capacity. While she went to change Spencer settled on the bed with the drive and her tablet. By the time she came out he had it going. "What is it?" She asked.

"Movies," he replied, "The creepy part being that a lot of these were on my Netflix queue."

He had piled some of his spare clothing behind him, to act as a pillow, or insulation from the cold wall. She pulled out a few things and added to the pile before settling in right next to him and looking for herself. "And the rest were on mine." She told him, "This guy really has done his homework."

"Yeah," Spencer looked up at the camera again. "I wish I could communicate with him, see what his goal is here."

"Well, communication requires two participants." She pointed out to him.

"True." He replied. "Well, what do you want to do?"

"Given that we can't leave; watch a movie, and wait to see if I die." What else was there to do?

Spencer sighed, "JJ…okay, hold on." He shifted the pile of insulation into the corner, and then settled against it, shifting her to lean against him, actually putting his arm around her shoulders to hold the tablet in front of them both. He was tall enough to literally see over her head, "This all right with you?"

"Yes, actually," it was comfortable and comforting, she thought. She couldn't think of many better ways of spending her last few moments on earth. "Okay, you pick first." She told him, with all false calmness.

* * *

Four hours and two movies later JJ felt Spencer shift as he looked down at her. "How do you feel?"

JJ considered this; cooler than I would like, she thought, and a little stiff from too much sitting. "Fine, I don't think I'm having any reaction at all. Could it just take longer or….?" She didn't want to get her hopes too high.

"I don't know." He answered honestly. "But I'm going to take that as a good sign. Want to risk bed?"

"Yeah, sure… um, any chance of getting some pillows? Some blankets?" She asked the room.

No reply.

"I guess not." She sighed and looked over at Spencer. "I guess we just use our clothes as best we can."

"Yeah," he was eying the floor warily. "Maybe use one of the go-bags as a pillow…"

"Spence," she sighed and shook her head. "You are not sleeping on the floor. We're sharing the bed."

He looked a little shocked at that, which JJ realized was both appropriate and expected, "JJ!"

She chuckled at him. "Spence if you try to sleep down there your knee is going to lock up completely, assuming you sleep at all. Now, come on. I'm not some innocent who's going to run screaming. Here, just…" The bed was too small to suggest taking sides. Finally she just tucked him against the wall and spooned up into his arms. A position that was actually…impressively comfortable. "I wish we could turn the lights out."

"I'm not certain I do, although down would be nice."

"Yeah."

A moment later the lights were turned out by the unseen Unsub. But the gas fire in the stove was left on. It was pointed away from them, so it left their corner of the room with a very softly lit glow. JJ snuggled down under the pile of blazers and sweaters and back into Spencer and sighed. Belatedly she realized that one of them should probably stand guard, was that what was missing?

A moment later she sighed again. No, she knew what was missing.

"What?" That soft voice over her shoulder murmured.

"Henry." She admitted. "I always call him before bed and leave him a message to listen to at breakfast. I didn't yesterday and now not tonight. What is he going to think?"

"He'll be all right." Spencer murmured. "Will is there, he'll be all right."

"I know." JJ sighed. Will was a good father, except…no, he was. Henry was fine and safe with his dad. "What about your mom?"

"I got a letter off yesterday; it'll be a few days before she starts to worry." JJ felt Spencer's arm tighten around her waist. When was the last time Will had held her like this; comforted her like this? Granted they had never been held by an Unsub together. "They'll find us by then."

"Yeah, they will." Comforted by that knowledge and by her friend JJ fell into a fretful sleep.

* * *

 

**BAU Headquarters**   
**Quantico, VA**   
**Hotch**

"I'm sorry." Hotch said into his phone. "You know…we won't stop."

"Yeah, I know that," drawled the Cajun voice on the other end of the line, a voice now filled with concern. "But what the hell am I gonna tell Henry when he finds out his Mama didn't leave a message for him in the morning?"

"Tell him…tell him she's off working with Uncle Spencer and they can't get to a phone and they'll be home soon." Hotch said. "If you need anything call Garcia, anytime, she has access to Bureau resources for times like this. And I'll let Jessica know that you might need help as well."

"Thank you. I surely do appreciate that."

"I'll keep you posted." At the moment there was nothing else he could do.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**   
**Somewhere Else**   
**Spencer**

They were awakened by the return of the lights, thankfully one at a time so they weren't overwhelmed. Spencer lay there a moment, trying to re-orient himself. He'd been dreaming He was in a park with JJ and Henry, teaching Henry to fly a kite. They were running over the cool grass and the kite was a living thing in his hands and he heard laughter and…. He felt her move in his arms, instinctively held her close a moment, savoring the scent of roses in her hair. "Good morning." He murmured, hoping to give her a chance to quietly wake before they had to face the nightmare again.

"Good morning." JJ rolled over a bit and blinked sleepily at him. "Any objection to my taking first crack at the bathroom?"

"Not if you give me a minute in there first." With that he pretty much rolled over her, all legs and arms and making her grin as he padded into the tiny room and shut the door.

When he finished what wanted doing he stepped to the sink to wash his hands. While he was in there she had pulled her toiletries and some fresh clothes out of her bag. "You said there are a washer and dryer down there?" She asked.

"Yes." He went down to the shelves. He'd poked them completely last night, but they revealed themselves to be an inexpensive free-standing unit bolted to the wall, and not concealing any sort of hidden entrance. "There are towels…sort of." A generous amount of them, but when he unfolded one it was only about 12 inches square. "Toilet paper, all natural soaps, rose, lavender, unscented…."

"Lavender," JJ smiled. "That's what I smelled last night."

Spencer felt his ears burn. Yes, he liked a lavender aftershave, so shoot him. It was spicy and light, not as chemically musky or sweet as the crap they put out these days. He found it in a very old drugstore downtown that still made such things. "Historically it was considered unisex. Most of the stuff for guys makes my stomach churn." And it was kind of an old-fashioned thing, which he found rather enjoyable. He came back with an armful of the towels from the shelf.

"Hey, not complaining, it works on you. I'll take the rose stuff, we can maybe use the unscented for laundry." She accepted the handful of towels he handed her with a frown. "Okay, there is not going to be enough room in that bathroom to keep clothes dry, how are we going to…."

Spencer considered. It was almost an engineering problem. "Do you have any safety pins in your bag?"

"Um, yeah, why?" JJ went and fetched her small sewing kit.

He pulled two dress shirts out of his bag, pinned the hem end of the button side to his sleeves, up by his shoulders, and then grabbed the collars. He then turned to face the camera, and held his arms open like a flasher, effective blocking the small corner by the bath from view, as well as keeping his own back turned. "We'll take turns. You only have to hide me from the waist down."

"Genus strikes again." She quickly shimmied out of her clothing, he could sense the movement behind him, and ducked into the tiny bath, pulling the door down to a crack. "I'll let you know when I'm done."

While she was in there he went to dig his own kit out of his bag. It felt…wrong somehow, like it wasn't quite as lumpy as it should be. He opened it and poked and frowned and poked some more, then he started emptying it and the main bag and his satchel as well.

It wasn't nearly enough time before he heard her call "Ready?" He stood and assumed the position and she jumped out, finished off quickly, and climbed back into her downtime clothes, "Done." When Spencer dropped his arms she noticed that the content of his bag was spread out on the floor. "What's this?" She asked as she went to work toweling off her hair.

"I started to wonder if the UnSub had gone through our bags. It looks like he did, at least mine."

She gave him a concerned look. "What's missing?" She immediately went to hers and started pulling stuff out.

"Meds and books," at her questioning look he elaborated, "I kept some naproxen for my knee and some antacids as well as a prescription for those migraines I'd been having. Gone, as well as the three books I had with me." That was the lump that had been missing, his prescription bottle.

"How are those, by the way?" She murmured as she checked her own bag

She meant the migraines, of course. "Better, since I went on vacation. I guess I needed it more than I thought." JJ gave him a knowing chuckle, one he admittedly returned. It had taken medical and critical stress reviews and Rossi buying the actual tickets, but they had finally gotten Spencer to burn off some of his impressive amount of leave. He'd spent six weeks tramping around the remains of Medieval Europe, in and out of the antique libraries there, and taking a seminar at Oxford, and had come back so much better for it that Morgan insisted that there had to be a girl involved somewhere. While he spoke she poked about some more and finally sighed. "You too?" He asked.

"Yep, no meds, no eBook and even the magazine I picked up last night is gone. Okay, why would he take meds and reading material? Maybe to keep us from attempting an overdose to get out of here? Maybe the books to reward us with leisure activities later?"

"I agree with the first premise, although your jumping to it is rather disquieting, but not the second. He left your tablet, the cards, my chess set…." There was a pattern there, just give him a moment… but they were interrupted by the sound of the drawer easing open, and a savory smell. Spencer was closest; he moved to look, "Breakfast. Here, this is labeled for you." He started passing her plates, scrambled eggs and sausage, small bowls of cut up fruit, prepackaged cups of yogurt, a basket of what looked to be whole-grain muffins, glasses of milk. Without a word he passed her the milk labeled for him. "No coffee." He sighed. "At least we're not going hungry."

"No, I haven't eaten this well since I was pregnant." He watched her eye the glass of milk with trepidation, clearly wondering if it would be drugged again. Granted there hadn't seemed to be any ill effects from the last one. He picked up what was meant to be her milk, turned his back to the camera and caught her eye. When she met his eye he mouthed  _I took yours_. She frowned, but he just gave the smallest shake of his head to her unsaid argument. This way she'd only get half a dose, if it was drugged. And the lactose pill in the bottom was still in the factory package, he wasn't concerned about that.

He checked the drawer one last time, and came out with a copy of the  _New York Times_. "At least we get this much. It looks like we've been missing a day and a half. We're on day two." He passed her the paper and fished a pen and notebook out of his bag.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"Keeping track," he replied. "If he sticks to a traditional schedule like this at least we'll have that much control."

They settled in to read and discuss over breakfast. Eventually they reached the end of it, and JJ spotted a mostly dissolved lump in the bottom of her glass. "I thought you gave me yours." She said, showing it to Spencer.

"I did." He replied. He drained the rest of his, looked, and then showed her the lump in the bottom of his. "I guess he already thought of that. You know, given that and the thoroughness of this set-up, I'm thinking this Unsub has done this before. This not only speaks of careful planning, but also practice."

JJ nodded "Which will mean other victims." Which would give the team a lot more to go on to find them. She looked down at the cup of yoghurt still remaining. "You said that was some kind of all-natural soap?"

"Yeah, why?"

She held up the cup. "Organic. Not the brand I buy for Henry, but similar. Why would he give us organic food and then drug us?"

"I don't know." Spencer was frowning again.

"Well, regardless, I'm stuffed. And there's no place to keep it here." She returned it with the dishes and then waited for the drawer to be pulled back.

It was, but then a moment later it was whacked open again, almost violently. Inside was the cup of yoghurt and a spoon. "I guess the Unsub is a member of the clean your plate club." Spencer commented.

JJ rolled her eyes and picked up the spoon.

* * *

 

**BAU Headquarters**   
**Quantico, VA**   
**Hotch**

If there was one thing he hated it was seeing pictures of FBI agents on the victims' board, more so when it was a member of his own team.

And now it was two.

He paced the conference room and sighed.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter five**

**BAU Headquarters**   
**Quantico, VA**

They had spent days combing through their friends lives, talking to everyone; family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers both within and outside of the Bureau. With nothing about the Unsub to start with they had to do this the long, hard way. Now the team was once again sitting down to compare notes. Hotch nodded to Rossi to begin. "Well, we talked to Will, talked to her family, checked with her former co-workers at State and even went as far back as her college days… nothing. We finally started going over Will's days with the NOLA PD. We've got nothing, not a thing we didn't know before."

"Same here with Reid." Morgan told them. "We checked with the Universities he teaches at, talked to some of the professors with CalTech, checked with a Dr. Norman out at Bennington, even tracked down his, ahem, friend from that Movie Club of his," friend from Movie Club, a roundabout way of saying his NA sponsor. "Not a thing."

"I have something." Garcia said, coming in last and picking up the control for the smart board. "It's kind of a good news, bad news thing. At least I think some of it is good news but I'm not a profiler and….."

"Garcia." Hotch really did not have the patience right now, he was starting a headache of his own.

"Okay, right. First off, I know it's not in his medical file, but can we say that Reid is at least a little autistic?"

"If he's not I'll eat my shoe." Rossi replied.

"No, wait." Prentiss pulled over the file she and Morgan had been compiling. "There's no formal diagnosis, but there is a strongly worded report from a school counselor when he entered first grade. They identified Asperger's Syndrome. Apparently Diana refused to take him in for a formal diagnosis, according to these notes she didn't want the government experimenting on his brain."

"Spoken like a paranoid schizophrenic." Rossi grumbled. "They re-classified Asperger's Syndrome as high functioning Autistic in the fifth DSM, there was enough overlap and they wanted to clarify the screening tests."

"What's the difference?" Morgan asked, clearly just out of curiosity.

"Asperger's Syndrome usually goes with a higher than normal IQ, and little if any language delay. High functioning autism covers normal to lower-than-normal IQ and more of a language delay." Rossi replied.

"Yep, that would be Reid." Morgan looked at him. "How do you know right off?"

"My nephew," Rossi put a hand up. "He's fine. He's all right. I did the research when he was diagnosed."

"Okay, if we assume the Unsub guess that or learned that we get a pattern." She touched the control and nine pictures appeared on the board, all young, Caucasian men between their late teens and maybe mid-forties, the last one being Reid. "Okay, eight victims over ten years, all diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome or some variant of Autistic Spectrum Disorder, all high IQ's, all with at least one PhD, usually two or three. All worked at different companies in different parts of the country."

"Eight over ten years," Morgan muttered. "That's a patient Unsub."

"With a big comfort zone," Prentiss added

"And spread out like that, it would have taken time to make the connections and get back to us." Rossi added.

"Were any of them ever found?" Prentiss asked.

"All of them. That's the bad news, none of the first eight survived." Garcia switched pictures to eight decomposed bodies. "All of them were found by passers-by when they bodies began to smell. The good news is that they were all found in the urban area where they were taken or the closest one, and the various coroners' departments pinned the time of death at no less than eleven months after the time they were reported missing; the longest being thirteen months." Garcia called up the reports and sent them to the various tablets.

"So he takes them, keeps them for a year, more or less, and then kills them?" Rossi asked.

"Probably more like lets them die." Next to Reid Prentiss was the fastest reader in the group. "Every set was found in a sealed area in the basement of an abandoned building. They didn't find any sign of drugs or injury, as near as they could tell they all died of either hypothermia or dehydration. Granted they were all found in an advanced state of decomp, so the results aren't conclusive."

"Every set?" Hotch asked.

Garcia pulled another set of pictures to the board, women, all youngish, but with nothing else in common, four clearly Caucasian, two Asian, one Hispanic and one that was hard to tell either way. They all looked to be of average height, more or less, healthy build but otherwise looked nothing like each other. "At the same time each man disappeared so did one of his co-workers. The bodies were found together."

"Physically those women have nothing in common." Morgan pointed out. "It looks to me like he's after the guys first, and then picks the woman closest to him that fits some other criteria."

"That's right, other than working with one of the guys and being college educated I have yet to find out what all these women have in common. I mean, they all have different degrees in different things, most have Master's degrees but these two only have a Bachelors', and this one is a PhD herself. Most are married but not all, they all have children of different ages, there's just nothing.

"Well, we know he's probably got them in the DC area, or somewhere close, and we have months to find them." Rossi pointed out. "It's something."

Hotch turned to look at the board. "With this many victims we have a lot to work with. Let's start talking to families and co-workers of the men, see what they all have in common."

"Actually none of these guys have families." Prentiss said, still reading. "They all came out of the foster care system."

"Another point of commonality," Rossi had a thoughtful look on his face.

"How?" Morgan asked. "Reid wasn't in foster care. His Mom loves him."

"Yes, but she's also been mentally ill for a long time. Living with a paranoid schizophrenic is an inherently dangerous, abusive situation. Go back far enough and I bet you find CPS reports on her home." Rossi turned to the board and frowned, Hotch could almost see the well-greased wheels turning in his mind. "Hey Garcia, I want you to work with me this afternoon. I've got a hunch. It might be a long shot but it might be worth a little time."

Hotch turned to Garcia. "Work with him, see what you come up with."

* * *

 

**Somewhere Else**   
**Spencer**

"So, you know we never really talked about it." JJ said as they were settling down to sleep the third night. "I really am sorry about not telling you about Emily."

Spencer sighed. That had all ended just over a year ago; he hadn't thought of it much since that first case with the whole team back together. "I know. It's all right, it was my fault."

JJ let out an exasperated sigh. "Is that why you magically got over it, because you decided to be the bearer of all the guilt? Spence, it was not your fault. We were under orders…"

"I know." Yes, talking about it made him uncomfortable. But it was part of the penance, now, wasn't it? "Do you know why they gave you that order, at least when it came to me?"

"Um…no…"

"Remember the night we all met at Rossi's, for that first cooking lesson? And I was late?" He felt her nod under his chin, against his sternum. "I went to an NA meeting. There was this guy I know there, Blackwater now, but he used to be Interpol. I figured if I could talk to anyone about it outside of the team it would be him."

"What did he say?"

"He reminded me that it is very easy to become physically addicted to Dilaudid, and that it becomes even easier the more you use. And that it clears the body in thirty-six hours. That was why he left Interpol."

He could feel her confusion, "Meaning?"

"Meaning if Doyle wanted to interrogate me all he would have to do was shoot me up. In less than twenty-four hours I would have been telling him anything he wanted to hear just to get more. It hurts that bad to come off cold turkey." He sighed at the memory. "Believe me, I know."

"Oh God, JJ moaned. "I didn't even think of that. We put you at such a risk."

Without thinking he put his arm around her to pull her in closer. "No, shhh, it's my responsibility. I'm the one who didn't get help right off after what happened with Tobias, I'm responsible. So, you know, I understand. And if…for some reason it happened again I still wouldn't want to mourn at any kitchen table but yours."

"Even with Will acting like a jerk?"

Damn. Spencer sighed. "I didn't think you noticed that."

JJ chuckled. "Oh, I noticed. He thought you should have just sucked it up, been a man about it. I didn't tell him….I just knew that with your Dad and Elle and Gideon, you've had so many people just go and I…."

"Shhh, thank you; I guess…I just have a hard time losing people. I get attached and want them to stay."

"I know." He felt her tuck her head onto his shoulder. "I know."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

**Somewhere Else**   
**JJ**

The days folded into each other. They took turns in the shower, on the treadmill, doing sit ups and pushups to keep muscles from atrophying in such a small space. They did laundry when needed, kept the place picked up, kept each other's spirits up. They played chess and poker and Gin, and when JJ complained that that was getting boring more games appeared in the drawer. They devoured each paper as it came, spending most of the one Sunday working their way through the massive edition. And every night they curled up together on the bed, watched a couple of movies, and then slept huddled beneath their clothes and in each other's arms.

Spencer got two wicked headaches from caffeine withdrawal, but by the fourth day he was over it. They continued to eat very tasty, healthy meals at regular intervals, including snacks. Every meal was accompanied by glasses of milk; every glass held a dissolving pill. But neither of them ever noticed any ill effects from whatever was in their glasses. At one point Spencer noticed a somewhat larger than average lump in his and fished it out with a spoon. "Do you have something I can put this in?" He asked.

"I have an empty pill case." She pointed out, noting the irony. She dug it out of her bag and passed it over. "Why?"

"When we get out of here it would be nice to know what we've been taking." He replied. Neither of them had lost the faith that they would be rescued.

Mostly, they talked.

"Okay, you never told me why you acted so weird at the football game." JJ asked him over cards one evening.

"Too many people, too noisy; I don't do well with crowds." Spencer replied as he moved his cards about.

"So why did you go?" That made no sense to her.

Spencer just shrugged, "Gin."

* * *

_She was running. Down one long, concrete hall, and then another, and another, running as flat out fast as she could. But no matter what he was still right behind her._

**_Give me what I want._ **

_She could feel his hot breath on her neck, hear his rough breathing, and smell the stench of him. Faster, she thought, must run faster. She dug deep and found a bit more speed to run._

**_Give me what I want._ **

_This turn and then that and then dead end in a well-lit room with a little stove. She turned and slammed the door behind her, shutting out the Unsub. Spence was there, slumped in the corner like a rag doll, shaking slightly. She crouched beside him and took him by the shoulder. "Spence, the Unsub is right outside. What do we do?"_

_He looked up at her. He looked horrid, sickly pale and bloodshot eyes. He coughed and blood spattered his chin. "I'm giving him what he wants." He said as he looked back down and slid the needle into his arm. "I'm giving him what he wants."_

_"No." She said, trying to stop him. No, no, NO!"_

* * *

 

"NO!" JJ screamed and jumped awake. In that small room, still, warm and dim and there was someone holding her….

"Shhh, JJ, it's just a nightmare."

She sat there, blinking, shaking. Yes, they were still trapped. Yes, there was still an Unsub out there. But Spence was right  _here_ , alive and well and pulling her down safe and warm into his arms. "Oh God, I dreamed you were giving him what he wanted. You had Anthrax and were dying and he wanted you to shoot up…"

She felt his arm tighten as he pulled back, at least mentally. "Well, that was a nightmare."

"No," she practically moaned as she put her arm around his shoulder. "Don't you pull away. We've never talked about this. I still think what happened was my fault, if we hadn't split up…"

"Shhh," she felt him rest his cheek on her hair a moment. "That was not your fault; I was the one who suggested we split up. Besides, even if it was, what happened during the months after was my responsibility. I know what I am. But I also know that I've been clean for years, and I'm proud of that. You don't have to worry."

"I just…I just don't want you to die on me." It was easier to admit this in the quiet, in the dark. How had they never done this before?

"I'll try not to." She felt him, yes, nuzzle her hair again.

There was a long pause while she tried to decide if he was dozing off again. "Spence…is that why you never asked me out again?"

There was a long pause and then she felt him pull her in a little closer. "There were a lot of reasons why I didn't ask you out again; one being a bad case of being very unsure of myself. It took me a while and some help from a friend to get my self-confidence back."

"A friend?"

She felt him go very still a moment. "Lila Archer."

"Lila." That surprised her. "I didn't know that you two kept in touch after what happened."

"Yeah, we, um, wrote and talked on the phone a bit. I went to see her sometimes when she was in New York."

"Really," JJ felt a wave of sleep wash over her, and she rolled in his arms to get more comfortable, spooning up into him. "You know, if you told Morgan he'd make assumptions."

"I know." Once she settled she felt him pull her in, her backside settling neatly into his lap. They had already dealt with the awkwardness of his waking up hard, it wasn't unusual in men his age; it just wasn't a surprise any longer. "Anyway, by the time that, um, got to where it needed to be there was what happened with Elle, and then Tobias…"

"Which, I guess, took a few months to work out;" to get clean, she realized.

"Yea, it did. I had an old friend from college help me. I actually ran in to him in New Orleans, the same trip where you met Will."

"Which means that by the time you were ready to ask me out again I was already seeing Will." JJ sighed. "We just kept missing each other."

"Something like that."

"Damn."

* * *

The next morning they were switching off showers. "Do you have anything you want to throw in the laundry?" She asked as she stood there with her arms out, draping shirts like flags, facing the camera.

"Um, yeah, over here."

She got a flash of movement as he went to pull the pile at the foot of the bed together, and instinctively turned her head. What she saw made her gasp. "Spence!" She dropped her arms and turned toward him.

"JJ!" He was standing there shirtless, his pants undone, riding low on his hips. But what caught her eye wasn't ivory smooth skin or fine yet clear muscles.

It was scars.

Specifically a scar, although he had several that concerned her. The one that caught her eye was a large one on his right shoulder. She reached out to touch it gently, as if the silvery pink skin could still be painful. "What happened?"

"A lot of things," he looked at that particular mark and sighed. "Look, I love Mom, and I know she would do anything for me, anything at all."

She heard the word hanging there. "…but?"

"But she's a paranoid schizophrenic, and when I was growing up she wasn't always entirely there." He sighed. "One night she thought I was my father and threw the kettle at me."

"Ouch." That's what the mark was, she thought, a hot water burn. But there were others…."Did she do all of these?" She gingerly traced a line on his chest that might have been a knife….

"No, the vast majority are from the kids in my high school." He saw the look in her eyes and stopped her hand, holding it against his skin. "Look, JJ, it was a long time ago. It's over now."

She knew that, but still, there was a lot of painful history lingering there. "I'm just sorry it happened. You didn't deserve any of it."

"Thank you."

JJ suddenly realized that they were standing too close, even in the small room, in a way too intimate. She looked up into those gentle, hazel eyes and for a moment she wanted to….

Spencer cleared his throat and broke eye contact, stepping back a bit. "You said you wanted to do laundry?" He asked as he pulled his shirt over his head.

"Yeah."

**BAU Headquarters**   
**Quantico, VA**   
**Hotch**

Hotch was walking almost too fast as he entered Garcia's lair. "You said you thought you had something?"

"I think we might." Rossi said. "Shut the door, you're not going to like it."

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

**Jareau/La Montagne home**   
**Quantico, VA**   
**Hotch**

It had been eight days. Eight days and they didn't feel the slightest bit closer. They had gone into the background of the other likely victims, only to find no real connections between them. There were similar magazine subscriptions, being published in the same journals, some vague connections through the academic world, but nothing that pointed to one, specific connection.

And the women didn't even have that much in common.

Yes, there was Rossi's hunch, an idea so disturbing that he simply could not process it. He was too close, they all were. Only Rossi, the one with the most experience in everything could give himself enough distance to wrap his mind around what they had found. He left him Garcia, left him to run down that hunch, while he and the rest of the team kept trying to connect the victims in any other way.

Hotch had told Will that he would keep in contact. He'd been e-mailing with what pitiful few updates they had two and three times a day, probably more if Garcia had been in on it, and he had been calling every night. But this was the first time in days that he'd taken the time to come back here. He looked around the rather dingy hallway, and then knocked.

A moment later Will LaMontagine opened the door, "Hey."

"Hey. I, um, brought lunch." Hotch held up the bag of subs and coloring books he had brought for Henry. It was a something, right?

"Oh. Come on in." Will opened the door and stepped back.

Like most apartments in this part of town the door opened practically into the kitchen, with the living space beyond it. Hotch knew JJ was usually a meticulous housekeeper, but right now pizza boxes and Chinese takeout containers were spilling out of the trash, and the dishes didn't look to have been done in days. When he moved past Will Hotch could smell the beer on him, even though it was lunch time. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm all right." Will replied. He called over to the living room, where the TV was on the cartoon channel. "Hey Henry, come on say hello. Uncle Hotch brought a present." He took the subs and moved to get plates and whatnot.

"Hey Henry," Hotch gave him the coloring book and collected a hug, "You know your Mom is still out working with Uncle Spencer but she said to say she loves you and she misses you a lot."

Henry nodded. "I miss Mama too."

"I know; I'm sorry. I'm going to get her home as soon as I can." I hope, Hotch thought. I hope.

"Here you go kiddo." Will passed him one of the sandwiches on a plate. "This time you can eat in front of the TV; just don't make a mess, okay?" When Henry nodded and left, he nodded Hotch over to the table. "So, what's going on?"

Hotch pulled off his coat and started rolling up his sleeves. He only wished he had more to tell him.

* * *

 

**Somewhere Else**   
**Spencer**

_He stood there, watching her walk down the endless hall. Her hair was spun gold under the hard office lights. He wanted so much to call her, to run after her, but he couldn't move, couldn't make a sound._

" _Sorry Spencer," drawled a light, familiar voice by his ear. He felt a very small hand that had been resting in his being pulled away. "They're all mine now. You're shit out of luck."_

_He turned to look back into the bullpen. It was empty. So were the offices beyond._

_He was alone._

_No._

" _This is what happens to sinners, boy;" similar drawl, but harder, more cruel. His head whipped around as Charles Hankel grabbed his arm. "This is the only love they get." He reached down and thrust the needle home…._

* * *

 

**JJ**

_Spencer was lying on the grass, bleeding. "Go help Hotch." He said to her._

" _No, Spence, you've been shot." She folded up her coat, tried to put pressure on the wound. "You're bleeding."_

" _Go help Will." He said to her, gently pushing her away._

" _What? No, Will doesn't need me." God, it was just flowing out now, there was blood everywhere. "You need me."_

" _Go. You're his now." He lay down in the cool, green grass and his eyes started to close as he grew paler. "I don't deserve to be here."_

" _Spence! Spence! No. No! NO!"_

* * *

 

"Shhh," another night, another nightmare and another time that Spencer pulled her back down into his arms. "Tell me."

"You were shot, you were dying, I…" I lost you. She curled up in his arms and let her tears soak his shirt as he gently ran his hand over her hair.

"Shhh, I didn't die. I'm right here."

"I know. I know." Eventually the tears slowed. "Don't you ever sleep?" She asked.

He chuckled, a sound without humor. "You're not the only one having nightmares."

Oh. "Oh. Tell me?"

"No. I'm used to them now. Go back to sleep."

* * *

"I wanted to go out with you." Spencer said out of nowhere a couple of days later.

"What?" They were enjoying remarkably good omelets, spinach and cheese and tomatoes, with the rest of the usual spread, and going over the New York Times. It had been eight days now, a frightfully long time. They had not given up hope, at least she hadn't, but she had also expected them to have been found before this.

"Why I went to the football game with you. I wanted to spend time with you away from work. That was what Gideon gave me for my birthday."

"A date with me?" He was kidding, right?

No, his ears were turning red again. "Well, more of an excuse to ask."

"Right, well, next time ask me to something quieter." It came out before she thought.

Unfortunately Spencer caught it, and nearly choked on it along with his omelet, "Next time?"

Now it was her turn to turn pink. "I…that's not…ah…." She settled back against the wall with a bit of a thump. "Look, Will is a fantastic father, you know that. He loves Henry like crazy, would do anything for him, and takes great care of him when I'm away…."

Spencer picked up on the word hanging there. "…but…"

JJ sighed. "…but if it wasn't for Henry I doubt we'd still be together. It's….well, married life is not what I expected."

"Is that why you're not really married?" He asked ever so gently.

She chuckled, a sound without humor, "Probably." A quick and easy out, she thought, once Henry is old enough, whenever that will be. She drained her glass and out of reflex looked in the bottom. "Hey, look." She held it out to show him, "Nothing."

Spencer drained his glass and looked, "Same here. I guess whatever it was it was a course of something and we finished it. How do you feel?"

She considered. "Physically….fine. Never better. I may have gained a pound or two. You?"

"About the same. I don't know what it was." He shook his head and loaded the plates and such back in the drawer. A moment later it closed with the now familiar whap. "So, want the National section next?"

"Sure." As had become their routine, they settled to read the entire paper, to be discussed over lunch. But this time routine was broken. They heard the faint tinkle of plates and glasses being lifted out of the drawer, as usual, but a moment later it opened again, revealing a note.

_Give me what I want._


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

**Somewhere Else**   
**JJ**

They had been concerned when they got the note after breakfast on day eight. They had no way of knowing what more the Unsub wanted. "What do you want?" Spencer had asked.

No reply.

But nothing changed, the power stayed on, the small stove kept pumping out a pleasant heat, eventually they settled back down. Another note came after dinner. This time JJ asked and got no reply.

On day nine the notes came after every meal. Spencer said he thought the handwriting was growing progressively more frustrated.

* * *

_No, no. NO!_

"No!" JJ sat bolt upright in bed, screaming.

"Shhh," once again Spencer pulled her back down into him. "Tell me."

"Henry," she managed to gasp out, still shaking. "The Unsub took Henry. He was taking Declan and Jack and he pulled Henry away and said that was what he wanted."

"Shhh, Henry's not here. He's safe with Will. Go back to sleep."

On day ten, as the stacked their dinner plates in the drawer JJ looked over at Spencer. "Think we'll get another note?"

"Probably, but it's not going to help unless he gets more specific."

Appease the Unsub, she knew, and try to learn from his behavior. Profile him, it was how to survive. But so far they didn't have much to go on simply from the lack of contact. All they knew was that he provided them with excellent food, which he expected them to eat. Simple enough, but now… sure enough, the drawer pulled into the wall, there was the tinkle of the plates being removed, and then the drawer came back.  _Give me what I want_. "We can't give you what you want!" She cried out in frustration.

"JJ!" Spencer was sitting over on the bed, his back against the wall. He clearly did not want her antagonizing the Unsub. And he was probably right,

With a frustrated sound she went and dropped down next to him. "I just don't know what to do, Spence. I'm worried about Henry and I don't know why the team hasn't found us yet, and I just…."

"I know." He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in. It wasn't the first time, over the days locked in, sharing a bed, a small space, they had become more physically comfortable with each other. Hell, she felt far more comfortable cuddling with Spencer than she ever had with Will. Now it seemed like the most natural thing to rest her head against his chest and listen to his heart's strong and steady beat.

A moment later that beat jumped as the door to the bathroom slid shut on its own. They could hear a latch click closed. Spencer immediately got up and tried it. "I didn't even know he could do that." He admitted.

"Yeah, we're never closing it all the way again. What is he doing?"

Spencer looked like he was going to answer when the small sink turned into the wall and was locked there. He looked at that, at the bathroom, and back at her. "No water." He pointed out.

"Why not just shut the water off like last time?" She asked.

JJ and Spencer both jumped again when the drawer whapped open. She slid off the bed and went over to look. "Water," she said, holding up the two liter-sized bottles of a common brand. "I think they're still sealed. And envelopes." She took both and went to sit on the bed, handing one bottle and the one labeled "Spencer" over when he joined her. There was something small and hard in hers. She ripped open one end, checked for a note, and not finding one poured the object out into her hand. It was a pill, maybe the size of an aspirin tablet, a cheery yellow with a smiley face imprinted on one side. "Does he…expect me to take this?" There was no way she was going to take a strange pill, not a chance.

"I don't know." He looked disturbed, she thought, and like the gears in his head were going a hundred miles an hour. "But that explains the toilet and sink, he doesn't want you sneaking off to flush it and saying you took it."

"What is it?"

"I don't know."

She looked down at the envelope still in his hand. "What's in yours?"

He looked down himself and then opened it. As he sat there looking at the contents she saw his eyes start to twitch back and forth, the first sign of his mind making one of those amazing leaps, where all of a sudden he connected every oddball thread of a case into one cohesive narrative that made total sense. But rather than speak he lifted his head and looked around the room. "Where's my wallet?"

"Um, in your bag, I think." It was a small room; they had been forced to be tidy to give them any floor space. As she watched him he went to his bag, rooted until he found his wallet and then upended it onto the floor. Cash and coins, cards, receipts, a spare key or two, all the usual debris of a man's wallet fell out. But he was clearly missing something. He crouched down, sorted through all of it, practically turned the wallet inside out, and then sorted through it again. "Spence, what is it?"

When he looked up and met her eyes he had clearly made the genius leap, that wonderful moment when it all came together for him and made magic. But he also looked scared, very scared. "JJ, I know what he wants."

Oh, she thought. Oh. "What?"

He reached into the envelope he had been given, and pulled out what was there. It was a pack of blue pills, four of them, still sealed in the factory package.

"What are they?" She asked.

He turned it to show her the back.

The label clearly read Viagra.

Oh boy.


	9. Chapter 9

**Somewhere Else**

**JJ**

JJ just stared a long moment, blinked, then laughed. "He… wants us to have sex?" Seriously? That's what this is all about?

"Partially, I think it's…"

She didn't give Spencer a chance to finish. "No. We are not doing this." Not like this, she thought. Not for some freak's entertainment. "We are not having sex for you!" She called out to the middle of the room.

The power immediately went out. A moment later the stove died.

"Wait!" Spencer called to the Unsub. "Turn it back on! Please? We're still discussing here." With a hiss the stove came back on, followed by the power.

"What discussing? We are not discussing anything!" Yes, she was furious that it had come down to this. "I am not performing so some…Unsub can watch. I mean that's what he wants, isn't it? There's no place to hide from the camera; there isn't even a big enough piece of cloth to cover one of us, let alone both, that's what this has been about this entire time, isn't it?"

"No, I don't think so. Well, yes." He nodded to her incredulous look. "I think he does expect us to have sex and he is planning to watch, but that's not entirely what this is about. Um…" She watched a look of bitter regret come into his eyes. "The Unsub took all the medicines from our bags. Were you on birth control?"

JJ blinked as the threads began coming together for her as well. "I was. And he took that and everything that might cause a birth defect if it was taken at the wrong time. You…you had a condom in your wallet?" It was a common enough thing.

He nodded. "And you said so yourself, you haven't eaten this well since you were pregnant. We've been eating a perfect pre-conception diet. The…the needle stick in your arm, he didn't give you anything, he took a blood sample, to see where you were in your cycle. And the pills in the milk, they were probably antibiotics, both to make sure we were both healthy…."

"And to counteract the hormones I had already taken for the month." She finished. Antibiotics did that, it was part of how Henry made it into the world. It made sense, it all made sense.

"Even the luxuries he's been giving us. He took the books, and he could have left the phones, if we can't get a signal out on the tablet we couldn't with a phone; but no books, no music, no little video games, no individual pursuits, just stuff to do together, to bring us together as a couple."

"And one bed," which probably accomplished that more than anything. She slumped back against the wall. "He wants your baby."

Spencer's ears turned red again. "Well, he wants our baby, a BAU baby perhaps."

"No, yours, Prentiss is going to have problems, with the injuries she got from Doyle, and Garcia is an unknown. But, you know, for all I complained I actually had an easy time of it with Henry. So I'm a proven variable. But if he wanted a proven variable on the male side, why not Hotch? He's proven his fertility and he's still well within the age range."

"Good point." Spencer turned and looked at the room again, long and slow, the gears still turning. "Look, I know you're not going to like this, but I think we ought to give him what he wants."

"What?" She was shocked, completely and utterly shocked. "Why the hell would we do that, Spence?"

"JJ , look at this place. The only way out is through that drawer and there is no way that an adult will fit through it. If we say no, he's not going to come in here and try to force the issue. He's going to shut everything down and then we'll have twenty-four to seventy-two hours. That's it."

JJ sighed. The genius could not be denied. "But if we give him what he wants we have…longer."

Spencer nodded, "Forty weeks. We know the team won't stop. Morgan never stopped looking for Doyle and Declan, even though it took months. This will give them time to find us. Besides, statistically the chances of getting pregnant given all the variables we have here are only 80%. There's a 20% chance we'll have to try again next month."

"Yeah, that's what I told myself after Will tore the condom." JJ shook her head. He was right, all the way through, and yet she hated the thought of doing this. It ought to be better than this, she thought; it ought to be at least…private. "If he gave you Viagra what did he give me?"

Spencer picked up her envelope and took another look at the pill inside. "Given the appearance and the situation, I'm guessing 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine."

"In English."

"Ecstasy."

"Oh, great," just what I needed, she thought, to get high in this situation. "Well, at least he wants me to have a good time."

"I, um, honestly don't think you'll need it." He dropped that envelope back next to the one with the Viagra and came to sit on the bed beside her. "You know, you told him we couldn't give him what he wanted. He was probably just trying to be helpful."

"Nice of him," JJ turned to look at Spencer. He looked so boyish sitting there. If it was the dark of the night then maybe she could, but not like this. "Well, we know I left my virginity behind a long time ago. What about you? No." She held up her hands. "Don't tell me. If you say the wrong thing I might not be able to do this. Let's just get this over with first then we can swap histories."

"Get this over with?" He sounded shocked, even mildly offended.

"Yes." She sighed and went to fish something out of her bag. "Come here and hold the…no, just hold on." She pulled the nightgown over her head and slithered out of her clothes under it. It only came to mid-thigh but that was enough, right? "I'm sorry but I refuse to let this bastard see any more than he has to to know that we….well, you know. And, I don't plan to actually enjoy myself; I don't care what he wants to see. I'm just….sorry you have to. So… let's just…do this." I am being very irrational somehow, she thought, as she flopped onto her back on the bed, putting him between her and the camera, but I don't know how else to be.

He looked at her, anger and hurt simmering in his eyes. Anger not at her, and hurt for her. "JJ , I don't think I can do this."

"Want the Viagra?"

"No. I don't….this violates every rule I ever learned about doing this sort of thing. This is entirely beyond wrong."

"I know. But we didn't ask for this, and I just don't… I don't want this to be good. As strange as that sounds I just don't."

"Thank you."

Bitter anger, she thought, and I don't blame him. "It's not you, God, it's just….look, I'll explain after. Let's just get this done before I lose my nerve. Please?"

He sighed. "JJ, if we do this like this I'll hurt you. Please, just let me…"

She didn't let him finish. "Wait." She rolled up, dug in her bag and came back with some silicone hair serum. "When I bought this at the salon they said it could double as lubricant. I've used it a few times, it works fine. Just, you know…." Hopefully he knew how to use the stuff.

"JJ …"

"Spence, just…please. All right? You're right about giving the team time. Just, get this over with." She lay back and closed her eyes. Think of England, right? Think of being on the jet and years ago and maybe you should have tried harder to get him to take you on a second date.

She practically felt him sigh, then felt his weight shifting on the mattress, a slight touch right above the knee. "JJ , I…"

"Spence, please."

He was gentle and kind, as she had expected, and his fingers were nimble and the gel was cool. He was careful with his weight, easy and slow, but not too slow. He was built a lot like the rest of him, slender yet long and he managed to angle so it really didn't hurt, just some tugging and a lot of pressure and full and there. In the end she heard him gasp and felt him go tight and then there was heat everywhere.

And that was that.

 


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter ten**

**BAU Headquarters**   
**Quantico, VA**

"Children?" Morgan asked, shocked.

"I know. Like I said, it was a hunch." Rossi replied, "But an educated one. The only thing those women have in common is that they're all mothers, all with children between the ages of two and six. We dug deeper, they all had uncomplicated pregnancies and natural births."

"So did JJ." Prentiss pointed out.

"So they're good at that sort of thing and it's been long enough that they're ready to go again." Morgan nodded as he looked over the file. "The time line fits, he keeps them until the baby is born, and a newborn is the only thing that would fit out the openings he has in those sealed rooms. Okay, but why?"

"I think he's a cross between a collector and an Angel of Mercy. He's trying to rescue the men, to save them from their abusive childhoods, maybe to see what a mind that brilliant can do without all the baggage."

"So he keeps the babies?" Prentiss asked. "How is he hiding them?"

"He's not." Rossi replied. "He gives them up for adoption. In every case within 72 hours of time of death a man contacted a local adoption agency. His wife left him with their newborn; she couldn't handle the diagnosis of autism. Neither can he. And he would they please help him find and adoptive placement."

"Can you diagnosis Autism that young?" Prentiss asked.

"No." Rossi replied. "They don't usually diagnose before 18 months unless at least one parent is also Autistic."

"So he knew because of the fathers." Prentiss nodded. "And given the premium placed on even partially Caucasian infants they would go to the most carefully vetted homes, probably to couples who had been diagnosed infertile, who would cherish that baby."

"Okay, that's the Angel of Mercy part, but what about the collector?" Morgan asked.

"Open adoption," Prentiss replied. "The adopting parents agree to keep in touch with the birth father, send pictures, regular updates. He could watch over the child from a distance, knowing they were being well cared for but not having to do the work himself."

"And then start with the next one. And now that he has 'saved' the father, at least his DNA and perhaps in the Unsub's mind his spirit, he can leave the parents behind like empty husks. He shuts down and moves on without a second thought, leaving them to die in the dark." Rossi agreed. It was his turn to take control of the smart board remote. "We found eight children; Garcia is trying to track the mailing and net addresses of the fathers. But she's having a tough time of it, lot's of forwarding, re-mailing, that sort of thing."

"He would want to keep getting those updates, even while he was working with the new couple." Prentiss agreed.

"Yes. We find where those letters have been landing; I bet we find JJ and Reid."

"Hopefully soon," Morgan pointed out. "Because there is no way Reid would go along with that bargain."

"I can't imagine JJ would either, she and Will are tight." Prentiss said. "We may have days, not months."

Rossi didn't say a word.

* * *

 

**Somewhere Else**   
**JJ**

"I'm sorry." Spencer said after a long moment.

She'd felt him slide out as soon as he was done, but she'd stopped him before he could slide off her completely. It felt safer with him over her, right now she needed that, now that her body felt aching and raw and her heart was just breaking. "Don't be sorry. You have nothing to be sorry for." The Unsub should be sorry, JJ thought. I'll see him in the worst prison I can find for making this happen this way.

"It shouldn't have been like that."

"Yeah, well, it was no worse than how Will does it." Actually it was a little better.

She could almost feel him process that. "That's….I'll…I'll make this up to you, somehow, at some point in the future."

He sounded so regretful, she thought and so deeply angry. This should never be about regret. "I know."

"I'll sleep on the floor tonight."

"You will sleep in this bed next to me." She didn't dare open her eyes yet. Her lashes were wet and she didn't want him to think she'd been crying with regret. "I am not going to let that bastard ruin everything."

"Everything?"

They were interrupted by a series of sounds around the room, the clank of the sink turning right side out, the clack of the bathroom door coming unlocked, and the whap of the drawer coming open. JJ opened her eyes as she felt Spencer shift off the bed, as he pulled her gown back down before he moved out of the way. She watched him pad across the floor, pulling his pants closed, and then look in the drawer. He pulled out a couple of bed pillows. "It looks like we've been rewarded."

She slid out of bed, stood there swaying slightly, feeling the heat seep down her thigh, watching him come over with armfuls of bedding, sheets, pillows, blankets, even a big feather tick to make the mattress even softer. "Reward for a job well done?" She asked, bitterly.

He stopped making the bed, sighed, and looked at her. "JJ ..."

"No, I'm sorry. That was uncalled for. I'm just coming to hate this one, you know."

"I know." He was always so calm, she thought, even when things were at their worst. No, maybe especially when things were at their worst. He babbled and rambled when everything was good but when it was bad he got calm and tight and straight on. It's not bad, she thought, to be like that. It's probably better.

He made up the bed, and they climbed in, him against the wall like they always had. Just as they were getting in the lights went out, leaving them the light of the fire. JJ sighed as she slipped into the pillowed softness, felt the weight of the blankets over her, the warm body at her back, the arm around her. "Thank God."

"Better?"

"Yes. He can't see us anymore." This was closer to how it should be, warm, intimate, private. She was not going to cry about this, she was not. "So, were you?"

"Was I?"

"A virgin," it was too late to do anything about it, she thought, but it does matter. It does.

He cleared his throat somewhere above her right shoulder. "Um, no, I left my virginity behind at CalTech. It's kind of a long and very geeky story…."

"Tell me, please. If it doesn't hurt you I could use a laugh right now."

"It won't." He reassured her. "I've told this story before, just not at work."

"Not even to Gideon?"

"Um, no actually," it sounded like that surprised him as much as it did her. "So, when I was fifteen I moved into grad student housing and met Ethan. He was my new roommate, and we've been friends ever since. We even joined the Academy together, but he dropped out to go to New Orleans and become a jazz musician."

"Oh, that friend," the one who helped him get clean.

"Yeah, he was always the cool one; I figured he would know about that sort of thing. Well, one night when I was maybe sixteen I went back to our room late and there was the traditional tie on the doorknob. I ended up nodding off in the dorm lounge. The next day I was not happy, and I found myself convinced that I would never be the one hanging the tie on the doorknob; I just didn't have the social skills to get that far. He told me not to worry, if I didn't get a girl on my own by the time I was eighteen he would quote hook me up, unquote."

"Hook you up?" JJ looked up at him and blinked. "You mean, like with a prostitute?" That might explain a few things she thought.

"That's what I thought at the time, and, you know, Vegas. I really wasn't interested, I could get better back home. But when I turned eighteen I still hadn't found a girl and out of morbid curiosity if nothing else I asked him."

"And."

"He introduced me to Tatyana. She was one of the assistant librarians on campus."

"Did she, uh, work on the side?"

"Yes, but not like that. Her other job was as a certified sex surrogate. She trained at the Masters and Johnson Institute."

"A sex surrogate? You mean like someone who would work with a sex therapist, doing the hands on side?"

"Yep, she used to, ahem, offer free lessons to the brighter, geekier guys on campus. She had a personal thing for teaching bright young men how to be, well, men."

JJ could not believe this, this was interpersonal gold. "And did you partake of her lessons Dr. Reid?" Surely he didn't, he wouldn't.

She could hear the blush in his voice. "Actually, I did; twice a week for twelve weeks."

JJ couldn't help it, she started laughing. "You're serious! Why?"

"Because I couldn't see the point in waiting for a…romantic entanglement. Based on my research I figured that lovemaking was a physical skill, just like any other physical skill, and that meant that I would have a long learning curve. I didn't see the reasoning behind taking that out on a future love interest or worse in trying to mesh my learning curve with hers. Not when I could take lessons from an excellent and well trained coach."

"And did you pass your class there, Doctor?"

"Actually Yana said I was one of her better students." Now he started chuckling. "Do not tell Morgan but, um, so did Lila."

Okay, that shocked her. "You slept with Lila Archer? When?"

"Well, we, um kept in touch and when she came to New York one time after what happened in New Orleans she took the shuttle down, and insisted and one thing led to another, and, um… well, after that she insisted on getting together whenever she was in New York or we were in LA."

She remembered a couple of their LA cases, when Reid had lingered behind, taken a commercial flight the next day. "You said you wanted to look up an old colleague at CalTech," which was why she hadn't thought anything of it. But he said after New Orleans, she realized, he didn't hook up with Lila until after I was with Will.

"Yeah, that's called lying for Morgan's benefit. Anyway, I got shot and she went to shoot a movie out in Transylvania and that was where she met the guy she's planning on marrying. We're still friends, just not, what was that term, 'friends with benefits?' I think that's what it means."

"It means you were Lila Archer's east coast booty call is what it means." Which was what she thought Will wanted to be, at first, and she hung in there because he was kind and it was supposed to be good, or so everyone swore. Except he wanted more and then there was Henry and that was years ago now. That might explain why Spence was able to do what had to be done so quickly, "And what about that girl in Atlanta? What was her name?"

"Austin. We, ahem, went out a few times but, um, the second time we….well, I showed her something Yana taught me and….after that it kind of ended."

"What happened?"

"She, um, said I was too…wicked for her, and she was going back home to her mother and her church."

Now JJ was flat out laughing. "Spencer Reid! You are so bullshitting me."

"No, I'm not, I swear! I would not lie about that sort of thing."

She was still laughing, if only out of surprise. Somehow going about it in such a methodical way didn't surprise her, not with him. But at the same time, there was something here she was missing…. "So here you have all these skills and you never shared."

"You never asked."

Well, that was true. "Would you, if I had?"

"Yes." He said it just that quickly, that straight.

He's been there all along, she realized. There has always been this. "Show me."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter eleven**

**Somewhere Else**   
**JJ**

"JJ!" Spencer sounded shocked.

"What? I'm serious." Her body still ached, still felt all twisted inside. Desire, she realized, and why not? "We may never get out of here, you know that. And we're going to have to do it again anyway if it didn't…take. But I'd rather like this, you know, with him not able to watch. Besides, you said you'd make it up to me at some point in the future."

"Yeah, I meant…in the future. I…"

"Well, from the time you said it, this is some point in the future." If we wait until we get back to DC, she thought, I will never have the courage to do this. Not in the light of day. "Now show me how you plan to make it up to me."

He was quiet a moment, unmoving. "What about Will?"

"I don't…I don't want to think about Will right now, all right?" Henry was perfect, she thought, but I am beginning to think the rest of it was one long mistake. "Please?" She stretched up and found his lips, kissing him in a way gentle but real. There, she thought as his arm went around her, a long-fingered hand cradled the back of her head; if nothing else we have this. We have honesty, intimacy now. Why did we wait so long?

"Jenny." He murmured as the kiss broke. His voice was thicker now, and it made her name something old-fashioned and sweet. Like penny candy, she thought, not knowing why. She felt him nuzzle the hair at her temple. "If we do this I cannot do what I did. That was so wrong to me."

"I know. I'm sorry. It's all right, he's not watching now." This is how it should have been thirty minutes ago, dark and quiet and safe enough. She reached up to stroke his shoulder, feeling the fine muscles underneath, never bulky; he wasn't built like that, but harder than she expected. "I want to know what you learned."

"Yana's rules?" It sounded like he was smiling, was murmured in her ear as his breath ghosted along her cheek.

"Yana had rules?"

"Mmm-hmm, number one was clear consent. No excuses, everyone had to say a clear yes all the way through."

"Well, I'm saying yes, all the way." She felt his lips just lightly touch her jaw. "What was number two?"

"Everyone goes home happy."

She chuckled, like that ever happened with a guy, "Right."

"No, really, she used to say that the myth of a healthy woman not reaching orgasm during intercourse was just an excuse for lazy, selfish lovers. That lead to a subset of the rule, Rule 2.1." She felt his breath, hot on the skin under her ear, "Ladies first." He nipped a kiss there, and heat ran through her.

When she could breathe again she asked. "What's rule three?"

His lips found hers, teasing them apart in slow, delicious exploration. "I think I'd like to show you rule three." He finally murmured against them.

And he did. He was gentle, respectful, and very thorough. He kissed her until her lips felt swollen, hands gliding over her body, making her insides twist with anticipation and desire. Over and over until she couldn't take it any longer and had to feel his touch on her skin and pulled the gown over her head, tossing it away to return naked to his arms.

His kisses trailed lower, his fingers lower still, until he was caressing soft breasts, making her still a bit with nerves. Will had never spent much time there; as good as it always felt. He always acted like they were mere accessories, placed there for his benefit, a quick exploration to see if they felt as good as they looked before moving on. But since Henry they didn't look as good as they once did, she had stretch marks and they sagged without a bra and it happened but she could always tell that Will wasn't as pleased as before. Now she worried what Spencer might think.

She needn't have worried at all. He lingered there, light, gentle touches followed by kisses light as a butterfly that made her twist and squirm and then stronger, nipped with careful lips and them more careful teeth. Touch and touch again as she threaded fingers in his hair and held him there to not stop, please, as the heat built and built and she thought something might happen just from that attention alone. But it got to be too much and she was warm and swollen there by the time she simply had to push him away.

Lower still, warm caresses down her belly, now wrinkled and worn from being Henry's first home. Will always said she should do something about that, never said what, but Spencer didn't seem to mind. He pressed kisses there instead as he reached lower to leave trails on her thighs so hot she almost thought she'd been branded. He coaxed her open, and then did something totally unexpected. He came back up to find her lips again, even while he took her hand in his and guided her fingers down. "Show me." He murmured in between kisses. "Show me what's good for you."

She almost, almost said no, too raw and exposed all ready, but there was a bubble about them somehow, warm and safe and his fingers rode lightly over hers as she touched herself in the way that worked when she was alone in a hotel or when Will was passed out on the other side of the bed. As aroused as she was, with him surrounding her, watching so intently, it would not take long at all. But after a moment he was brushing her fingers away, matching what she liked so very perfectly, all she could do was writhe in his arms, "Spence, I…."

"Shh." As if he could tell how close she was he stopped, but only to trail lower still, through the thick wet from before, long fingers coaxing her open, caressing, then caressing in and slow, waiting for her to get used to the invasion this time, for her muscles to relax and grant him entrance. Gentle and slow, bringing up damp and heat and then slicking it back to the surface to mimic her own touch, and then to do it again, and then with two fingers, and then to get her to open just a little more….

"Please!" She couldn't go any further. It was too much, too big. It was going overwhelm her any moment. She wanted him inside her when she fell, and she wanted him now. She felt his smile on her skin with something near to relief, and then he was so very tall over her.

She felt his body between her thighs, felt his fingers thread into her hair. "Jenny, look at me. Look at me." Only once she had opened her eyes in the dim light, once her eyes met his, once she was that gloriously there and present and seeing him alone did he ease himself forward. It was different than it had been before; than it had been ever before. Not even a hint of anything that could ever be pain, just pressure and full and the knowing of that, of what they were doing so deep in his eyes. He had opened, adjusted with such care, and even now his fingers were finding that spot again, not even moving as she grew used to him, coaxing her along. She couldn't help it. She wrapped her arms and legs abound him and thrust her hips up and up again, wanting to pull him with her as she fell. It was a perfect rhythm, older than time, and within moments it made them both drown.

 


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter twelve**

**Somewhere Else  
JJ**

She floated for an endless time, aware of nothing but the sweet, heavy warmth pinning her in cloudlike softness. As she settled back into her skin she felt laughter bubbling up from her very soul. She felt herself starting to grin, then chuckle, then laugh, as the world filled with wonder.

JJ heard a warm laugh just by her ear in return. "Ah, now I understand." Spencer murmured, nearly breathless, as he nuzzled her temple.

"Understand….what….?" She managed to gasp out between giggles.

"Endorphins and prostaglandins, Yana said women could react like this if you didn't use a condom." He ghosted a kiss to her cheek, another to her shoulder, gentle, tender. "It was a sign that you did very well."

"Yeah." It was a sign that he'd done very well, Yana was right on that one. Must send that woman a fruit basket or something. "You haven't done it without a condom before?"

"No, never tried to make a baby before."

That should be disquieting, she thought, but I feel too good to be upset by anything. The simple feeling of his weight on her pelvis was utterly delicious, she realized. She rocked against him gently and was rewarded with a small spasm of pleasure.

"That's not going to help." He told her. "I may still be young but my refractory period is not instantaneous."

"Is it ever instantaneous?" If anyone would know right off the bat he would.

"Not technically, there are some rare cases of males being able to achieve another erection right off, but it's usually too sensitive to achieve orgasm. Most men reach their shortest time at age eighteen with 15 minutes, extending up to 20 hours around age seventy. Given that I just managed two in about thirty minutes I'm not going to complain. But another go will have to wait."

"I'm certainly not going to complain." She made a small, disappointed sound as she felt him slide free of her at last, then they were shifting over and back to lie in each other's arms in that small bed. "Now I am sorry about that first one."

"We can pretend it didn't happen. You were right about the blankets making the difference." He pulled her in to use his chest as a pillow if she liked.

She liked very much. She curled next to and over him, resting where she could hear his heart. "Was that what sent Austin back to her mom?" She asked.

"No, that was actually a combination of lessons one through six, and a demonstration of rules three and four. What scared Austin was lesson twenty." She felt him sigh under her. "I probably shouldn't have showed her that one so soon."

Only Dr. Reid could talk about human sexuality in terms of rules and lessons and make it sound utterly normal. "Why not?"

She felt him sigh under her cheek again, "Too much, too soon. It was wrong of me to push like that. And it was too much for her so she broke it off."

He didn't actually sleep with Lila until after I started seeing Will, she thought, and he met Austin while I was on maternity leave. It was the first case they were actually assigned to after Henry was born, after that mess with his father. "You fell in love with her."

He was quiet a while. "I wanted her to fall in love with me." He admitted, eventually. "There's a difference. I wanted her to get as attached to me as I wanted to be to someone else. And it was wrong of me and I paid for it by having her not wanting to see me again. And do not tell me I deserve better, that one was completely my fault."

Maybe we both deserve better, she thought. She was quiet for a time, holding him, feeling his arms around her, the deep magic of skin against skin. "You know, it's not going well with Will."

"You've implied that a few times now."

She sighed. "I know he came up here to do the right thing for Henry, but I don't think he's happy. He misses being a cop and he misses home and he never did get over the storm and losing his father like that."

"Well, maybe when Henry is old enough to go to school he can go back. At least try DC Metro."

"I don't know." JJ sighed again. She finally had to admit to someone. "We stopped having sex a while ago, more or less.

"More or less?"

"He's not violent or anything like that. He never has been and never would be. But it's always been more for him than for me, and then with work and Henry most times it's just not worth the trouble. It's easier to wait for him to have a few beers, then he's over faster and he just passes out."

Spencer's arm tightened around her. "I'm sorry. I didn't know you were that unhappy."

"I didn't realize I was until I….got through lessons one through six." She turned her head to look at him. "I think you just ruined me for other men, Dr. Reid."

He toyed with her hair a moment. "Should I apologize for that?"

"No." She rested her head on his chest again. "I just…I always ran from people, I was always afraid of something being big and real and then everyone got hurt. And…I didn't want to run anymore. I didn't want to be alone anymore. I…"

"You wanted him to fall in love with you." Spencer suggested gently. "You wanted to have someone attached to you."

"Yeah, and…he did. He is." She reached up and wiped a tear off her cheek, why was she so upset? "It wasn't until after Henry was on the way that I realized that good enough wasn't good enough. And then we were stuck, but I figured it was okay because no one was getting hurt." She turned to look at him again. "I didn't realize we were hurting you."

Spencer slowly shook his head. "I was a mess when all that started. And none of it had anything to do with you. You made the best choices you could, I know that now."

"I know." It came out as a moan, and she dropped her head back on his chest. "I'm just sorry we put you through hell. I'm sorry we lost so much time."

"Well, we have lots of it now." He gently ran his fingers through her hair, the most comforting gesture ever.

"We should probably sleep." She suggested, after a long quiet. I want to say I love you, she thought, it's the right thing to say.

She could almost feel him wanting to say it too. "Good night, Jenny."

"Good night."

* * *

 

**BAU Headquarters**   
**Quantico, VA**

Garcia practically ran out of her lair, "Got him!"

"Where?" Morgan was the closest, but the rest of the team was right behind.

"Baltimore, Maryland."

"That's less than two hours from here." Prentiss pointed out, "Plenty of time for him to brick them in."

"All the letters are going to one of two box drops, and the laptop that picks up the e-mails has been logging in from the same internet hub for the past four months. And it's all in a six block area." She showed them on the map. "The bad news is that all of those places are closed at this hour."

"We'll be there as soon as they open in the morning." Hotch told them.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

**Somewhere else**   
**JJ**

She didn't want to wake up the next morning. The lights dragged her out of a rich and luxurious sense of perfect rest. No nightmares, she realized, I slept the night through.

That probably had a lot to do with the ghost of breath on her bare shoulder. She rolled about in the now heavenly soft bed and watched him sleep a few moments more. He looks so like a boy, she thought, but he's the strongest man I've ever known. What was I thinking? "Good morning." She murmured finally, reaching up to brush a curl off his forehead.

He stirred and murmured and pulled her in snug against him, pressing a kiss to her temple. "Good morning." He finally opened those hazel eyes and smiled at her. "I guess I didn't dream last night."

"Neither did I." She smiled through the gentle, waking kiss, flinched at the sound of the drawer easing open, sighed at the reminder of reality so soon."Your pants are closer, grab my clothes?"

They tugged their clothes on under the covers, and then Spencer fetched breakfast in bed. But this morning no one paid any attention to the paper. "So, um, I've been thinking." JJ said eventually. "If we get out of here…"

"When we get out of here," Spencer reminded her.

"…when we get out of here, I'm, um, breaking it off with Will." She put her plate down in her lap, utterly unable to eat for the emotions making knots in her stomach. "I…I just can't any more. I don't love him, I love you."

The truth hung in the air, quiet and heavy. "Well that feeling is mutual. But what we need to think about is what's best for Henry. You know, we kind of profiled Will, when you two were going out, he profiles as a man who wouldn't hold with a non-monogamous relationship. He'd cut all ties."

"What, you think if I said I wasn't in love with him he'd no longer want to see Henry?" Even as she said that she could feel the truth of that statement, what wounded pride would cause him to believe. In those ten weeks of Spencer mourning Emily at her kitchen table more than once Will had voiced suspicions of something more between them in the past. He would make himself believe, just to be able to lay the entire responsibility for it not working on her.

"Yes. And Henry needs his father. I know what it's like to have your father walk out on you. I'm not willing to do that to him. Besides, from a purely practical standpoint, Will looks after Henry when you're out in the field, if he left you'd be as bad off as Hotch. Worse, you wouldn't have a sister-in-law to help you. And as I understand the fraternization rules one of us would be transferred. Given our skills and experience probably to a different BAU team, which, given the scheduling, would mean that we would never really see each other." He was being the ever practical Dr. Reid, but she hadn't seen that kind of pain in his eyes since Emily's mock death. "Does Will believe you two have a monogamous relationship?"

"We don't. We're not married; I never said that to him."

"That's not what I asked."

JJ sighed. "He probably does, yes."

"He deserves to have those feelings and beliefs respected. So when we leave here you do."

She just shook her head. "You expect me to live a lie forever?"

"It's not exactly living a lie. You can't change the way you feel, and I'm certainly not asking that. I'm asking you to not change your behavior in response to this new information. Just keep sharing a home with him, remain monogamous with him, and don't say anything unless he asks directly." Spencer went back to poking at his omelet. "Look, I'll keep an eye on the listings for instructors at the Academy. I won't have any problem transferring over when something comes up and that will give me a regular schedule. Then once Henry starts school and is old enough to understand you can break it off with Will and I can look after him after school."

JJ could feel the tears welling behind her eyes. "That's two years from now!"

"So? I've loved you for ten years now. I've survived that; we can both make it another two." He sighed. "I am consciously and deliberately putting Henry's needs ahead of my own desires. I'm asking that you do the same."

There was one important card left to play. "And what if Will wants to have sex?"

"That is a decision you have to make. Do not consider me as part of that decision; at this point I don't expect a monogamous relationship." He managed something that wasn't quite a smile. "Rule ten; do not make assumptions; always communicate your expectations and limits clearly and directly. Your having relations with other men doesn't bother me, so long as you don't get hurt. But I won't be the 'other' man outside of here, I'm sorry."

"You can't be the 'other' man, I'm not married!"

"Will wouldn't see it that way. And he deserves to have his feelings respected."

"Damn it!" He was right, he was entirely right. Will deserved to have his expectations met and Henry needed his father. Everything would work out fine; all they had to do was suffer for it. She rested her head back against the headboard and watched him eat through her lashes while she willed her tears to go away. After a long moment, when she thought she could speak again, JJ asked. "Will you marry me?"

Spencer stopped in mid-chew. "I thought we just had this discussion?" He said after he swallowed.

"I don't mean right now, I just…" She sighed again. "I'm trying to say that I'm not going to leave you. That as of right this minute I commit to always being where you can find me, regardless of what else is going on. I'm not going to…to go off to Paris or anything like that. And when the time is right, yes, I would like to enter into a monogamous, committed relationship with you. I guess…I just want to know if that's something you want."

Spencer looked at her a long moment. "Only more than anything," he finally replied. "I've always been there for you, as a friend and as Henry's godfather. I would be willing to be more, if your family situation would allow. And when it changes I am willing to be that for you. I will always be there for you, and no one else but you, from today forward."

JJ swore the world stopped. "Does that mean you're saying yes?"

Spencer slowly smiled, "Yes. That means I love you and I'm saying yes." Plates be dammed, he leaned forward and cradled the back of her head and kissed her, over and over and over again and she knew it was completely right.

Just as that kiss broke they heard a familiar, faint noise. They turned and looked down the long axis of the room.

The drawer was slowly coming open.

 


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter fourteen**

**Somewhere Else**   
**JJ**

If nothing else this Unsub was a creature of habit. He would always wait to open the drawer until they were clearly finished with a meal, never before; and never so slowly, even when there were bowls of soup inside. They looked at each other, clearly wondering what fresh hell this could be. And then they nearly jumped out of their skins when a familiar voice came from the drawer. "Reid?"

JJ looked over and met Spencer's gaze, seeing her shock mirrored on his face. For a moment she was almost angry, why now? Why not one more day? But that voice came again, utterly implacable. "Reid?"

Spencer closed his eyes a moment, clearly wondering the same thing, then got up and padded over to the drawer. He pulled out a walkie-talkie, jury rigged to a wire that went back through the pass-through. "Morgan. We're here, we're all right."

"JJ there with you?" The familiar voice asked.

"I'm here! I'm all right!" She called out.

"Yeah, we're both fine." Spencer informed everyone on the other end of that line. He toggled the microphone off and turned to her. "Pull the feather bed off and put it on the floor. Make it look like another bed down there."

It sounded urgent, so she got up and got started, trusting him. "Why?"

"I'm not seeing any other way in there." Morgan asked. "Can you see a door from your side?"

"So Will has no reason to suspect anything," Spencer turned back to the walkie-talkie. "No, based on the different coloration in the masonry I suspect he bricked up the entrance. You're going to have to take the wall down. I don't see any electrical on this side, but there is a gas line in here…."

While Spencer and Morgan talked destruction JJ made up a pallet on the floor next to the bed. It didn't take long, and in what felt like no time Spencer was coming over to kneel on 'his' bed. "I'm sorry." He said, taking her hand. "I really think we have to do this. Just don't say anything, let their own assumptions lead them."

"I know." She managed a smile, as she reached up to brush the curl off his forehead. "A big part of being a parent, I guess. You sacrifice for your children." Spencer looked like he was about to say something, but then his eyes started to flicker as he was about to make another leap. She jumped herself when something huge smashed into the wall, and then did it again. Sledgehammer, she realized, Morgan is taking the wall down. She looked down again when she felt Spencer drop his head into her lap and hang on. "Spence, what is it?"

When he looked back up he had a look of such pain on his face, pain she hadn't seen since she'd told him Emily had 'died'. No, even more pain. He was drowning. "Jenny, when you get to the hospital, take the pill they give you." He said. "We have time."

"What…?" But there was another crunch and he was spinning around to sit beside the bed, his back to the wall, a decent distance between them.

One last crunch and some of the concrete blocks shattered and came crumbling out of the wall. A moment later the muzzle of a gun poked through, followed by a familiar head. Morgan looked around, and then pulled the gun back, "Clear." He called back to the people on his side of the wall. "You two look all right."

"We're fine." Spencer told him. There was no sign of the anguish of a moment ago, JJ realized; his face and voice were a perfect mask. "Kind of bored, he took all the books."

"Now for you that must have been torture," Morgan teased.

"Speaking of the Unsub, did you catch him?" Spencer asked.

"No, we missed him. We'll get him though. It looks like he knocked over some recording equipment on his way out of here. I'm guessing that camera, so we're not going to have it for evidence. Did you guys even get a look at him?"

Thank God, JJ thought, we never even thought of that. "No, but you found us in here, which should be evidence enough."

"Hopefully," Morgan looked back over his shoulder as someone said something about tools. "All right, stay back there. We're going to get this hole bigger."

* * *

As soon as they were free of the cell Emily pulled JJ aside. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." JJ replied. "Not a scratch. I just…I need to call Will." That's what I would want to do first, she thought, call Will.

"Of course, we're getting reception over by the windows." Emily handed over her phone, and then moved to give her some privacy.

JJ dialed the number from memory. "Will."

"Aw, Jage," that familiar Cajun drawl. "Damn it's good to hear your voice. I've been worried awful. You all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm…I'm fine. Put Henry on?"

The phone moved and then that sweet, perfect voice, "Mama."

"Hey Henry," she couldn't help it, the tears she'd been holding in all morning finally let go. "I'm going to come home, all right? I'm going to be home real soon."

"I love you Mama." Henry said.

"I love you too sweetheart." Spencer was right, she knew, there isn't any other choice to make; anything for her son, anything at all.

There was the sound of the phone being passed back. "I'm over at Hotch's place; Jessica said she'd watch him for us. I'm gonna meet you at the hospital."

"No. No, Will, you don't need to do that. I'm fine, really. You don't need to drive that far. Wait, where am I?"

"Baltimore. You're in Baltimore cher…."

* * *

 

**Spencer**

He hated doing this. He hated lying, hated not being able to be utterly open and honest. She loves me, he thought, she really does love me. But I can't tell, I can't let her tell. I am not letting Will do to Henry what my father did to me. Henry matters far too much.

"So, you okay?" Morgan asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Granted they were a lot easier to bring along than his Mother; nothing like a paranoid schizophrenic for reading micro-expression. "Knee's a little stiff, but otherwise I'm good. I think I may have gained a few pounds. If you're ever going to be held by an Unsub try to get one who can cook."

"I'll keep that in mind." Morgan was looking around the cell, noting what was lying in the rubble of the wall. He bent and picked up something shiny. "Looks like we got here just in time," he said, holding up the unopened pack of Viagra. "The Unsub was getting impatient."

Let him make his own assumptions, he thought, just go along. "Yeah, well…" He rubbed his neck, shuffled like he was embarrassed and looked around the room. "You said the recording equipment was smashed?"

Morgan grinned at him. "You just need to practice more, and then you won't need this." He teased. He put the packet in an evidence bag. "Yeah, it was between him and his escape route. It was an older model; Garcia said there's no hope for it."

Thank God. "Too bad."

Hotch and Rossi headed over. "Reid, we have an ambulance here. I want you and JJ to go to the hospital and get checked out."

Perfect, exactly as I expected. "No, Hotch, we're fine." It's for the best. Nothing has ever hurt like this and nothing ever will but it's for the best.

"No arguments. Go."

"All right," Spencer showed all due reluctance as he headed for the medics.

"See." Morgan said to Rossi as he held up the evidence bag in his hand. "I told you they wouldn't do anything. We got here just in time"

Rossi didn't say a word.

 


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

**University of Maryland Trauma Center**   
**Baltimore, MD**   
**JJ**

"Do I have to?" JJ asked.

Emily frowned at her, "Yeah, of course. We need your clothes for evidence; here."

I don't want to, JJ thought, they smell like lavender and love and I don't want to let them go. But for Henry…. She slowly stripped off, as Emily politely looked away, and put her clothing in the paper bag held out, pulling on a hospital gown, and then pulling a sheet over her legs.

"You okay?" Emily asked.

Let their own assumptions guide them, isn't that what he said? "Yeah, it's just….it was so long…." I never thought I'd wish I could have spent more time trapped by an UnSub.

"Well, that's understandable." Emily smiled kindly. "And it's not going to get any better. You know they're going to want to run a rape kit." She picked up the other bag, neatly labeled and sealed.

No, JJ thought. I still have the memory of him on my skin. I cannot; will not sully that. Not yet. "No, that's not necessary."

"I know, but it is procedure." Emily pointed out. "You can formally decline, if you want, but they're going to ask."

"Then I decline." JJ told her. "There is absolutely no need for one, and it will take hours. I just want to go home."

"All right, I'll go find the nurse." Emily stepped out, leaving it blessedly quiet.

Not for nearly long enough. The nurse bustled in, blood pressure, heart beat, any injuries, all the usual. Yes, I decline the rape kit. No, I was not injured. Yes, I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. At least I don't have to lie about that part, JJ thought, I really am fine. Yes, she told them, we were drugged. Yes you can take a blood test. Yes, yes, yes.

"All right, I'll send Lucy in for blood as soon as she get here, then you ought to be free to go. Oh, and this is for you." The nurse left a small packet on the table and breezed out. JJ picked up the small, pastel packet and looked it over.

_When you get to the hospital, take the pill they give you._  He had said.  _We have time._

It was a hormone tablet. Emergency contraception.

That's what he meant, she thought, ruthless logic. Stop a pregnancy now, before it becomes one. We'll have time to give Henry a brother or sister later, in a few more years. When he's old enough to understand that his father leaving has nothing to do with him; ruthless logic.

Except she could remember a mind that knew no limits and a love that went so deep that it cried at her table for ten weeks straight when it lost a friend; a love that hadn't wavered, not in all these years, while they missed and made mistakes and went through hell apart and together. But there is Henry and Henry is here now, and can I risk his happiness on something that is barely a potential? I just don't….

The door opened and a familiar face came in. "Hey, cher. How you doin'?" Will drawled as he came and pulled her into his arms.

"I'm all right." He's a good man, she thought. He's a good man and he deserves respect and kindness even though I don't love him. He deserves the honest truth. But then he would walk away, his pride is too brittle and he's been through too much, and Henry is the priority here. But what do I do about….? "I'm fine. They just need to take a blood sample and I can go home. Did you bring my clothes?"

"Yep, got 'em right here. Oh, and Henry sent you this." Will reached into the bag he brought and pulled out Henry's Paddington Bear doll. "He said you might want a hug."

JJ choked out a laugh that was half sob. Paddington Bear, Barbar the Elephant, Curious George, all the great characters from the children's classics and all the books, all came to Henry from his Godfather. Gifts from a man who would never let pride get in the way of being there for him, no matter what. She pulled Paddington into her arms, smelled Henry in the plush fur, and for a moment swore she smelled lavender too.

"What's this?" Will asked, picking up the packet with the pill. He looked at it quietly. JJ could see the confusion, the insecurity, something that could easily become anger and hurt spread across his face. "You need this?"

In the years to come she would be amazed at how quickly your entire life can change. "SOP." She replied with an easy smile. "I don't need it."

Will relaxed with a smile and a chuckle. "Didn't think so," Will said, moving it to the counter so it could go back to the pharmacy, "That Spencer, always a perfect gentleman."

"Always," JJ buried her nose in Paddington's fur and sighed.

"Hey, there you are." Emily came back, followed by the lab tech for the blood draw. She grinned at Will. "Good to have her back, I'm sure."

"Oh yeah, gonna take her home and celebrate." JJ felt herself die a little inside when Will said that.

Emily must have caught a micro-expression there. "Well, don't celebrate too hard. Strauss wants everyone in for a debriefing first thing tomorrow."

"Don't worry, I'm fine." JJ insisted. "I'll be there."

"All right."

* * *

**Jareau/LaMontagne home**   
**Quantico, VA**

Later that night she stared out the window at the moon. It's too light in here, JJ thought, it ought to be darker, just the light of the fire. And there ought to be someone else in this bed.

Of course Will was there. But he was all the way over on the other side, snoring the contented sleep of three celebratory beers and a roll in the hay. It wasn't the same. It hadn't been bad, she thought as she wiped at the tear on her cheek. He's kind and tries to be gentle, and really wanted it to be good. But he's not a genius and he's not the right man. I can't do this, she thought, but I have to do this. But at least Spencer knows I love him. He knows he is loved. For now that will have to be enough for us both.

* * *

**Spencer Reid's apartment**   
**Washington DC**   
**Spencer**

"Really, I'm fine."

"Then why are you so quiet?" Morgan asked as he made himself a bed on the sofa.

Spencer sighed down into his tea. Morgan had simply run him over, insisting that he was going to stay the night. First night home, he said, just in case you need anything. Just in case I end up with a raging case of PTSD and run off to a dealer, Spencer thought, which is really never going to happen again. "Tired, I should probably head to bed, we wouldn't want to keep Strauss waiting in the morning."

"No, that would be a bad thing. All right, I'm waking you for breakfast."

"Good night." Spencer closed the bedroom door behind him and moved to the reading chair in the window. It was too bright in here, he thought, it ought to be darker. How many times have you sat in this chair and gone back over your memories of the day, of how unending, gentle kindness, of the scent of her hair, of that one time she moved just so and took your breath away? Why is this so much harder tonight? It's not like she hasn't slept in another man's bed for the past five years, what's different now? Is it because she knows now? Is it because she loves you too?

No, he thought as he reached up to scrub at watering eyes, you know what it is. It was the right decision, the only logical decision. It's not a complication we need right now. In a few more years, when Henry is old enough to understand that it's not about him, then we can make that choice if we want. This was for the best.

The only problem being that he had ached ever since JJ placed Henry in his arms. And tonight that ache was vast. Tonight, when it was all going to be over before it had a chance to begin.

It was for the best, he thought as he scrubbed at his eyes again, it was for the best and no one knows but her and I and I trust her completely. It was for the best. But I think I'll just sit here and be what I almost was until dawn.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter sixteen**   
**  
JJ**

Time passed.

The day after they were freed from the basement JJ and Spencer went in with the rest of the team to talk to Strauss about Ronald Hackett, the UnSub in question, and then to the Bureau shrinks. Strauss asked why she refused the rape kit.

"There was no need." JJ replied. "You weren't going to get any evidence, the UnSub never laid a hand on me after we were shut in there and I'd had several showers since. I just wanted to get home." All true, she thought.

The report on the sample of the pill Spencer had saved came back. As he had predicted it was a common antibiotic. Even though there were no ill effects they were both given a mandatory week off.

No exceptions.

* * *

She spent the week with Henry and Will enjoying the first good weather of spring. They went to the park, to the zoo, to see the bugs in the Smithsonian. She delighted in Henry and tried to remind herself of why she had feelings for Will in the first place. He was a very good father, always, clearly loved his son dearly, and loved her. But she also saw the beers that started in the morning when they were home, and cockiness that hid insecurity, and the lack of curiosity about the world. And while she did care about him, very much, the spark just wasn't there any longer.

The first day back she watched Spencer stride in to the bullpen, those long legs that were so finely muscled just eating up ground, and that spark jumped into her throat and tried to choke her. "Hey Spence, you look way too brown for March." She had said to him, when they had a moment. "LA?" Did you run back to Lila?

"Hey, JJ," he looked up at her with that gentle smile that stole her heart. "No, Vegas." He replied, giving her a reassuring look when no one could see. "I went out to see my Mom. I told her I would go out on my next vacation."

And he always keeps his word, she thought, foolish me. "Ahhh, but you look too brown for the inside of Bennington."

"I did a little hiking while I was out there."

"Since when do you hike?"

"Since I walked around the Lake District on my vacation last year; I figured it was silly to hike England and not home as well."

"Isn't that hard on the knee?" She wildly wondered if he'd gone hiking with his shirt off, if he was that kind of brown…

"Not if you're careful. It's actually good exercise for it. And I brought my brace in case it acted up."

"Oh."

**Spencer**

He went back to his desk and sat, carefully keeping any hint of his feelings off his face. He really had been hiking; Jenny had no need to worry. And he was honestly sorry she had, even for a moment.

She was probably worried about Lila.

She needn't have worried; there was no way Lila Archer could hold a candle to her. Lila was a lot like a spoiled, pampered Persian kitten, fun to play with and cuddle, but a lot of trouble to keep and tends to shed on the furniture. Lila didn't have JJ's gentle heart or sharp mind, both of which were the most attractive things about her to him. But she was sweet and a very understanding friend.

* * *

He still remembered the first time she left a message on his voicemail, just wanting to talk. He'd stuck his head in Gideon's office. "Um, Gideon, is it…would the Bureau get upset if I spoke with Lila Archer again? I mean, given that she's a victim and a witness and…"

Gideon had been nose deep in a file at the time. "Just don't talk about the case."

"All right."

They hadn't. They had talked about all sorts of other things that night, and many nights later, and when he went out to visit his mother in Vegas later that year he'd ended up in Lila's hotel room the night before, watching movies and eating popcorn and generally being distracted. Then had come Randall Garner, and Elle being shot in her home, the first time an UnSub had followed them home, and then Elle left and not long after that he had met one Tobias Hankel.

He hadn't seen Lila again until after he got clean, Gideon left, Emily and Rossi joined up. She'd noticed when he turned down the wine she offered. "Clean living, huh?" She'd asked

"Yeah, something like that."

"Have anything to do with that new body art?"

"Body art?"

She'd taken his arm, and folded his cuffs back just a little more, showing the small cluster of track marks. "Hun, I live in Hollywood. Are you still using?"

"No. Nine months, exactly."

"Awesome! I am totally proud of you!" She'd beamed and gone to her fridge. "The Bureau know?"

"Um, not officially."

"Well, they will not hear from me. And if you need to talk to someone, you put me on your list of people to call, k?" She poured him a glass of sparkling water and raised her wine in a toast, "To clean and healthy living."

Six months later he had been in New York. They had just gotten back from admiring the crater Morgan left in Central Park, and now had to confront what had been going on while they were sorting the case. He'd tried his sponsor first, and then his back-up, but neither answered. But another option happened to be in New York that week. "So, why are you in New York?" Lila asked as she let him in to her hotel room. "And why are you in my hotel room, and does this mean I can finally entice you into my bed?"

"Um, we're in New York on a case…."

"…which you probably can't talk about but which probably involves the bomber and which totally makes you my hero again…" she cut in.

"…and, honestly, I'm in your hotel room to avoid getting more, um, body art."

Lila's face went from impressed to concerned. "Oh. And I am assuming you do not mean a tat. All right, you are staying the night. Get comfortable and start talking."

He managed, while carefully avoiding names and identifying details, to tell her everything, from that first disastrous date to Hankel and getting clean while JJ was getting comfortable with Will to them finally revealing their relationship. At the end Lila jumped to the most logical conclusion. "…and now she's going to marry this guy."

"They're still discussing. But she did announce that she's having his child."

"Owwwww!"

"Yeah, so, while it would be very not right of me, in answer to your earlier question, yes you probably can entice me into your bed tonight." Because I don't think I can believe in romance any longer, he thought, and friendship is a very good thing on its own.

Lila considered this a long moment. Then she reached over, took his glass away and slid into his lap. "Well, if you're going to go for a grudge fuck," she said, "It's better to do it with a friend who loves you."

And that was that.

* * *

Spencer's computer beeped incoming mail. Lila had sent him wedding pictures. She looked deliriously happy. He was deeply, truly glad for her. She found her love.

And in all the ways that mattered so did he.

His eyes were caught for a moment buy a flash of sunshine hair, which would be soft and warm and smell like citrus, he knew that now. He watched her walk around the corner, and carefully controlled his reaction to the sight.

It was going to be a long few years. But it was worth it to give Henry a chance to grow.

**JJ**

That first week back they ran into the backlog of cases from when they were captured, as well as the week they were gone. It was two and three in a row for weeks on end, trying to clear it all. On the way back from their first trip out she decided she had to dare. The entire time they had been quite professional, made simple by a truly interesting, engrossing case. The one time they were likely to do anything was at night, at the hotel, when it would be quite simple for him to creep across the hall.

He didn't.

The next day she cornered him when they were both alone in the precinct conference room. "You know, tonight you could…"

"No." He said, not looking up from the file.

"Why not?"

"Henry."

Of course, Henry needs Will and Will deserves to have his expectations met. Nothing had changed, "Just…do you want to?"

"Very much so," they both looked up as Hotch and Morgan came back in with the dump site info.

Later, on the plane, she decided she had to dare. "Is this seat taken?" She asked Spencer. He was sitting by the window in the four seat, across from Emily and Morgan.

"Not at all," he replied, as he moved his books.

"Thank God." She had a blanket with her, and dropped in easily. "Do you care if I fall asleep?" Emily and Morgan already were, slumped over on to each other.

"Nope, will my reading light keep you awake?"

"I don't think so." From there it was a simple, natural thing to doze off with her head on his shoulder, the familiar scent of lavender surrounding her. It was the sort of thing a comfortable friend would do.

But a friend wouldn't have reached under the blanket, to hold her hand as she drifted off.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen**

**JJ**

Now it was six weeks after they had been freed and it was her birthday and she was just getting out of the shower when she realized that something wasn't right.

She'd been tired lately, but the way they'd been working that just wasn't a surprise. Neither were the headaches or the mood swings; some of those cases were grisly, or the slight cramping, that happened with regularity. But she got out of a cool shower and was drying off and realized something wasn't right.

Her breasts were warm.

They were warmer than the rest of her, and slightly swollen. Her Grandma Nan would have said she had a fever in them. And when she felt them they tingled and were more sensitive than they should be. All things she hadn't felt since….

A moment later she was ripping apart the bathroom cupboard. She knew she had another in here, she knew she had stashed the spare; she knew she had…oh yes, there. And it wasn't expired, thank heaven. It's amazing how you don't think of things when you just can't, she thought, I just let myself get so busy and so wrapped up…

Five minutes later she was sitting on the bed, watching two lines appear on the bit of plastic in her hand. Oh my God, she thought, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God…..

"Happy Birthday Mama!" Came a small voice from the hall. A moment later, Henry bounded on the bed, followed by Will with a tray. "We made you breakfast!"

"Did you? Oh how wonderful! Thank you so much sweetheart. Oh, and is that a gift for me?" There was a small jewelry box on the tray. She pulled Henry into her arms and opened it. It was a gold stylized heart on a chain. From the heart dangled a single citrine. "Oh, I love it! Is that your birthstone? Is it?" She put it on and pulled him in for a cuddle.

"Looks like it's a good thing there's room for another stone." She heard Will say. JJ looked over and saw him standing there with the pregnancy test in his hand. "When did this happen?"

For a moment time just stopped. I should tell him, she thought, I should tell him but he would walk out right now. Or…worse, she suddenly realized, and that is something I cannot, will not do. "Must have been the day they found us." She replied, glibly. "The…person in question took away our pills. And, well…" She stroked Henry's head and didn't continue.

She watched as Will's assumptions took him the rest of the way. "Okay, after this we are changing to another brand of rubber." He said with an easy grin. "I got no problem with a big family, you know that. You good with this?"

If I say anything, at best he'll leave. He'll question if Henry really is his and then he'll be gone. Or worse, he'll want me to 'take care' of this and I just…. There was a small bubble of something growing, deep inside, something she couldn't look at, not yet. Right now she had to do this. "Of course, just…don't say anything tonight, okay."

Will just looked down at Henry, "Looks like the gift's for us, kiddo. How does a baby brother or sister sound?"

"Yeah!"

* * *

After work they all met at the Emerald Dragon for dinner. On the way in JJ realized that Will brought balloons. And he probably told the waiter, she thought, which means I'm going to get some ice cream with a candle and be embarrassed tonight. But that's all right.

The problem came when Emily looked up at the bunch of balloons. "Uh, JJ, why does one say 'it's a boy' and one say 'it's a girl'?"

Garcia gasped. "Oh Jage, you're kidding!"

JJ shot Will her best cutting look. "I asked you to wait." Not like this, I didn't want him to find out like this.

Will just smiled back at her. "You know how I hate to keep secrets."

Then they were all crowding around, hugging her, shaking his hand, congratulating them. Spencer was of course behind everyone. For one moment JJ saw the naked shock in his eyes, and she just sighed. Then she watched his mask drop in to place, a mask build of a paranoid schizophrenic mother and a high school from hell and having to live with profilers and hide being high and being deeply in love. It amazed her how flawless that mask could be. She hadn't seen through it the first time she told him she was pregnant, or the day she placed Henry in his arms. But now? "Congratulations." He said clearly as he came in to hug her and shake Will's hand.

"We got to find you a girl." Will said with an easy smile. "That way you can be next."

"No, I think Morgan gets to be next." Spencer replied with a grin. "Excuse me." He headed down toward the washroom as the group exploded in teasing laughter.

**Spencer**

Thankfully he made it to the men's room, and was able to latch the door behind him before his legs went out entirely. He slid down the wall and landed with a solid thump on his ass.

Jenny was pregnant.

She would be careful, he thought, she knew she wasn't on birth control and she didn't want to have another baby by Will. She would have been careful about condoms, about trying as little as possible. So there could only be one explanation.

She never took the pill. She never took the pill they gave her at the hospital.

He sat there in shock in that dim, dingy bathroom, sat there as that ache he had felt since she put Henry in his arms, the ache that had been endlessly vast ever since the night they returned, that entire sensation curled up and turned turtle and morphed into a love stronger and deeper than he had ever dreamed.

 


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen**

**JJ**

It started with their very next case. Spencer managed to guide her into the seat next to him, right next to the couch, which was hers by default for the next ten months. Without a word he slid a bottle of water into her lap. She looked over at him and put up an eyebrow. "The atmosphere in an airplane cabin is usually kept at eight percent during flight. That can lead to dehydration, especially during pregnancy. To combat that they recommend one liter of water per two to three hours of air time. We ought to be in the air roughly 1.5 hours, so one bottle ought to be ample."

"Roughly?" Emily asked him.

"Well, you have to account for variation of weather patterns, traffic, that sort of thing. It can be difficult to give more than a rough estimation unless you're in the cockpit."

"Right."

About an hour later, when she was beginning to remember that morning sickness and motion sickness go hand-in-hand a bag of the ginger drops she used to control the queasiness last time landed in her lap. She looked over at him and smiled. "You remembered."

Morgan chuckled. "Okay, now I know you're pregnant. You're impressed because Reid remembered something."

No, JJ thought as Spencer looked over at her, something tender and warm where the others couldn't see, I'm impressed because he's already trying. He's taking care of us both.

* * *

This case took them to New York, which was not happy to see them. "Probably because we left a large crater in Central Park the last time we were here." Rossi joked.

They were in the precinct where the murders were taking place, and Hotch was handing out assignments. She, of course, was staying behind. A number of the officers were giving her the hairy eyeball for it as well. "What's that about?" Spencer muttered.

"Probably think we think FBI is too good to go out on the street." Emily replied.

Spencer frowned. "Hey Morgan," he called, practically across the room. "I thought it was accepted custom that a pregnant law enforcement official stays in the office?"

They all winced. A hostile precinct was not the best place for Reid to have one of his more obtuse moments. "It was when I was back in Chicago PD." Morgan replied, having figured out what he was doing after a moment. A quick look around the room revealed an "aha" moment on a number of faces.

But Spencer had to go one step further. "I would think that would go double if the father was a cop."

"Blue blood baby huh?" One of the detectives working with them asked.

Spencer looked up like he was surprised by the reply. "Oh, um, yeah, her partner was New Orleans PD."

"Well, congratulations!" By now the entire room was all smiles.

JJ was about ready to throttle Spencer. She hated a fuss, hated appearing weak in the field, hated any kind of special treatment. And now his inability to grasp…no, wait. She caught the look he sent her. He just did that deliberately. He was manipulating the entire precinct. She moved to his side under the pretence of handing him a file. "What are you doing?" She hissed.

"Making sure you're taken care of while we're out in the field." He gave her a smile that was practically a kiss and left to follow Rossi out to the dump site.

* * *

Later that night at the hotel she couldn't wait any longer. Spotting the faint light under the door she crept across and knocked.

Spencer opened it, was standing there in what she now knew to be his pajamas, "scrub" pants and a v-neck undershirt, barefoot, his glasses on his nose, his hair a mess. He hadn't been asleep, past him she could see the case file and who knew what else spread out on the bed. A moment later she was inside and the door was closing behind her. He held up a finger and gently pushed her into the bathroom, turning on the fan. "Morgan is right next door." He pointed out. "This is how people get caught doing this."

"I know, I just…I'm sorry you found out that way. I asked Will to wait but he…"

"I know, I know, I'm just…." He ran his hands through his hair and sighed. "Are you all right? I mean…"

"Physically? I'm fine. I'm in perfect health for this sort of thing, probably even better than when I conceived Henry. Hackett knew what he was doing, I'll give him that." It was probably…she knew she was…but she had to know. Maybe it was hormones, but she had to hear it from him. "I couldn't take that pill, I just couldn't. Are you…are you mad at me?"

"Jenny…" She looked up at the soft sigh in his voice. No, there was nothing but love in his eyes. "No. This is impossible and it's wonderful and I don't know what we're going to do but….thank you. Thank you for this. I'll do everything I can to help, you know that."

That lump of a something that she had not been able to process, that she had been avoiding on instinct started to grow. It kept getting larger inside her chest. "What are we going to tell Will?"

"I don't think we should tell Will anything." He held up his hand to hold off her protest. "Nothing has changed, Jenny. Henry still needs his father, and you still need someone at home and we would still be breaking the rules. I think sticking to the original plan is still the best thing for Henry and will be good for this baby. And physically having someone to help out is good for you as well."

"It's not all that great for Will." She pointed out. "We're flat out lying to him by letting him keep thinking this baby is his."

"Well, if Will were the type to be willing to work out some kind of custody arraignment so he could stay in Henry's life even if you two broke it off we wouldn't have to do this."

"And what about you?" She asked. "If we do this, this baby is going to spend the first two years of its life thinking someone else is its father. The first time your child says dada it's not going to be for you. That's not fair."

She heard Spencer take a deep breath. "I know. I'm making a conscious decision to do this, Jenny. I'll give that up for Henry's sake. Besides, I won't be that far away, I'll be there."

"I know you will." She was near to tears then, and simply had to step into his arms. "When did this all get so complicated?"

"When we joined the FBI," he replied. He held her tightly, surrounding her with the scent of lavender and love and then eased back, just enough to slide a hand down to where her belly was still quite flat as that bubble of pure love and joy broke free and filled her. "Hi."

 


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

**JJ**

Time passed

Winter grudgingly gave way to spring, which too quickly became summer. They went on more cases than they cared to think about. She spent a flight with too much turbulence bent over in the galley while Spencer managed to hold her hair and explain the sociological meaning of cannibalism to the rest of the team without missing a beat. When her ankles started to swell she began flying stretched out on the couch, her feet in Spencer's lap, which he had done last time, she recalled. Whenever there was food he always shunted the healthiest to her. His bag could be relied on for ginger drops, lotion for itchy dry skin, healthy snacks, a handkerchief for bouts of emotion, and a dozen other creature comforts. And he managed to make it all look like the attention of a close, caring friend.

Will stayed home with Henry, drank just a bit too much beer, ordered too much take out for dinners, and spent a lot of time watching ESPN when Henry was asleep. She finally gave up and hired a housekeeper to come in once a week, whether she was in town or not, just to keep ahead of the game. And she began looking at day care centers open 24 hours as a backup. It turned out there was a very nice one just down from their house that would only cost a small fortune. But she didn't want to do that, when Henry was awake Will was a caring, attentive, loving father. He took Henry to the park, to the zoo, to reading time at the library, and when summer came around, to his first softball league.

He wasn't even upset when she suggested he stay with Henry while she went to the prenatal appointments. "It's not like we haven't done them before." She said. "Somehow it's not as exciting the second time around."

"That's true. And Henry has a game then, he'd hate to miss it."

"I'll come down for the second half."

She lied. It was as amazing as it had been with Henry.

While she was at the game she sent a copy of the ultrasound video to the e-mail account Spencer set up just for that purpose. And then to cover her tracks she sent it to Emily and Garcia as well.

**Spencer**

He would never admit that he spent all day sitting at his kitchen table, waiting for a video to land in his mailbox.

He just wished he could be there. Not only today, when he wanted to be in the room when Jenny got her first look at the little miracle growing in there, but always. He wanted to be there when she was sick in the morning and tired at night, he wanted to be there to hold her hair when she was sick and bring her soup, and rub her back if it was hard to sleep. He wanted to be there if she was still having nightmares. He ached with wanting to be at her side. Work was, well, work and while better than nothing it just wasn't the same.

That's Will's place, he told himself for the thousandth time. It's the demand he places in exchange for being there for Henry. It's worth it for Henry. But I wish I could do something to make it easier for her… anything to make it easier for her. I can't even tell Mom she's going to be a Grandmother.

He looked up from his notes as his phone rang. "Reid."

"So, are you coming to the party?"

It took Spencer a moment to realign his gears. "Ben, hi. Party? What party?"

"The one on the sixteenth, when we take the company public."

"Uhhhh…." He really didn't enjoy parties; social minefields unless he already knew the vast majority of the people there.

"You have no clue what I'm talking about, do you?" Ben asked.

"Honestly, none."

"When you get up on the seventeenth, check your bank balance."

"Right," Ben hung up, leaving Spencer more than a little confused. Then his mailbox blinked, and his heart was taken away.

**JJ**

"Is it too early to start thinking of names?" Will asked one night as he settled into bed next to her.

JJ was sitting in bed, leaning against the headboard, nose deep in an old case file. You know it's bad when you realize you're just reading them because you find it fascinating, not because a case is pending, she thought. Or is it because Spencer wrote up this report? "What? Names? Um, no, probably not."

"Good, 'cause we agreed that we'd name the first one after your daddy, the second one after me and mine." Will nodded sagely. "William Tobias LaMontagne the third."

Not. In. This. Lifetime. "That's kind of a mouthful." She pointed out.

"Well we can just call him Trip or something. I hear they do that up here."

Spencer's father's name is William, she recalled. "What if it's a girl?"

"Oh, it's gonna be a boy, I can tell." Will just grinned at her. "But if it's a girl you can pick."

"Oh, thank you." She smiled and he chuckled. Please dear Lord, she thought, let it be a girl.

* * *

"He wants to call him what?" Emily asked.

"I know, I know." JJ replied, watching Spencer just blinking as he came down the aisle of the plane. "I refuse to call my child Trip or William the Third or…"

"Billy the kid?" Morgan had to throw in.

"No. Come on, this is horrible." JJ moaned. "I don't know what I'm going to do."

"Pray for a girl." Emily replied. She turned to look at Morgan. "Okay, then, what would you want to name a son?"

"That's easy. I'd want to name him after my father. What about you Hotch? Where did you get Jack's name?"

"Haley's father," Hotch answered, barely looking up from his paperwork.

"Ah," Morgan looked back at the rest of them. "What about you, Prentiss?"

"Oh, I think he'd like to stick with Declan." Ever since Ian Doyle died Declan had been in boarding school, had been looked after by friends of hers who had a son his age, but they were still close. She looked over at the others. "What about you, Reid? Ever consider what you would name a son?"

He barely looked up from his own file of paperwork. "No, I can't say I have."

"You're no help." JJ grumbled at him.

He finally looked around. "Sorry."

Emily just shook her head. "Pray for a girl."

* * *

On the way back JJ settled into the seat next to Spencer again. It had become their little ritual, when everyone else on the plane fell asleep or was consumed in paperwork, a quiet moment that was utterly aboveboard and yet still intimate. She would usually doze off with her head on his shoulder, his hand holding hers. More than once he dozed off as well. It was almost waking up in his arms.

This time, just as she got comfortable he showed her the book he was reading. "You know, when I was growing up Mom used to read me stories of the Knights of the Round Table."

"Really?" She knew this. He knew she knew this. So there had to be a reason for him telling her now.

"Mmm-hmm, one of my favorite characters was Sir Tristan. He was sent by the king to bring Lady Isolde back from Ireland to be the king's bride, but the accidentally drink a love potion and end up as secret lovers. They end up having all these adventures as they try to do the right, honorable thing, but in the modern versions in the end they end up together, with children."

"Ahhh, interesting," it took a moment, but then she realized where he was going with this. "Tristan?"

"Tristan."

She smiled as she nestled into his shoulder. Tristan. And if it was a girl she knew exactly what she would do.

 


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter Twenty**

**JJ**

Time passed.

She kept getting bigger. It got harder and harder to get around, but that surprised no one.

One night on the plane, as she was sitting there, her head on Spencer's shoulder, she realized what that flutter feeling was. It was impossible to tell from gas at first, but it had continued off and on for days and then grew stronger. She finally put two and two together. And I get to do this with him first and not Will, she thought. "Hey," she nudged him gently. "Do not freak out."

"At what?" Spencer asked.

In reply she took his hand and tucked his fingers under her waistband, right against the tight skin of her belly. After a moment she felt a ripple of movement right under where she was pressing his fingers down hard. "Feel that?"

She looked up and saw the magic and wonder in his eyes. "Still the freakiest thing ever," he informed her. But when she let go he stroked that spot of skin gently before he took his had away.

The entire pregnancy was full of the smallest moments like that.

* * *

One night they were all over at Rossi's, having one of his infamous family dinners. JJ looked up from her pasta, smiled at Will, but then looked across the table and caught Spencer's eye. "Hey, Morgan, Emily, um, Will and I wanted to ask you something."

"Yeah, JJ, what's up?" Morgan asked as he and Emily both looked across the kitchen.

"Well, Will and I have been talking, and since we already gave Spence and Garcia a shot…well, we'd really like you two to be godparents."

"Ohhh," Emily came over and hugged her. "Of course I will."

"Count me in." He and Will were all smiles as they shook hands.

JJ looked over at Spencer, who gave her the smallest, most satisfied smile.

* * *

**Spencer**

San Francisco, land of hills and fog; it was supposed to be romantic. Spencer thought, I wish Jenny was here. But once she hit 36 weeks she was grounded. Too risky, the change in cabin pressure could induce labor. Besides, Henry had come three weeks early. So, she was home and waiting and he was here and aching. Will did this before, he thought, they did just fine together without us. And the gooey, bloody mess of birth is not exactly something I truly wish to see. But I wish I could be there for her. It's hard and frightening and even with modern medicine still a bit dangerous and I wish I could hold her hand through it all.

Spencer followed Morgan down one and onto a street that ran flat to the bay. "Did you know that this part of the city is literally floating?" He asked.

"No." Morgan replied. "But you're about to explain it to me, aren't you?" They walked into one of the skyscrapers, where a guard was waiting for them, and then into the elevator.

"During the Gold Rush of 1849 entire boat crews simply abandoned ship to run to the hills to make their fortune, as did most of the men in the city. It resulted in a harbor so clogged with empty boats that the few men remaining to man the harbor couldn't clear out the docks. Boats had to moor further out and people had to climb from ship to ship to make it to shore." They got out of the elevator on the bottom floor and followed the rigged lighting and crime scene tape to a stairwell leading further down, down to where the UnSub had made his last stand. "So after the 1906 earthquake, when it came time to rebuild, they just pushed the rubble and soil over the old hulls and built the city on top. And that is why…" The stairs led them to a subbasement that looked remarkably like the inside of an old, square-rigged ship, all wood and odd angles. "…the subbasements of a number of these skyscrapers are actually sunken ships."

Morgan looked around. "Are you saying we're underwater?"

"More like buried in landfill." The sheer engineering feat always amazed him. Twenty stories built atop an old schooner.

"Oh, great."

Eventually they made their way back to the surface. As soon as they reached the lobby Morgan stopped to check his phone. "Talk to me baby girl."

"There you are!" Garcia cried. "Okay, who are you with and are you somewhere where you can talk about something not about the case?"

"I'm with Reid and yeah, we're just wrapping up. Let me put you on speaker." Morgan moved to one side of the lobby and motioned Spencer to follow him. "Okay, go."

"JJ had a little girl!"

Spencer felt the world stop. He hadn't even known Jenny was in labor.

"What?" Morgan went all grins. "Well, all right! How is she doing?"

"Yeah, I know! Oh, Mom and baby are both completely perfect. She wants you guys to finish up and come home to meet her."

"Yeah, well, we're trying."

Spencer swore his heart had stopped beating. And there wasn't enough oxygen to breathe.

"Got a name?" Morgan asked.

"Sophia Marie. I don't know where she got Sophia but Marie is her mom's name."

"Wisdom of the Gods," Spencer managed to choke out.

Morgan looked over at him. "What?"

"Sophia, it means Wisdom of the Gods."

"Awww," Garcia called out. "Well, I just like the name Sophie."

"Yeah, me too," Morgan said. "You give her a kiss for her godfather; tell her we'll be home soon."

"Will do," Garcia rang off.

Morgan looked over at Spencer. "You okay? You don't look so good."

Spencer gestured to the big wall of glass on the front of the building, where the sun was finally breaking through the fog. "I'm trying not to start a migraine. I'm going to go find the restroom, I'll be right back."

"All right."

Once safely inside the rest room he locked the door behind him and just stood there breathing. A girl, Jenny had a girl.

He had a daughter.

In that heartbeat he fell instantly, deeply in love, further and deeper than he ever thought possible. She was the most perfect thing in the universe; he didn't even have to meet her to know.

A daughter.

Sophie.

The wisdom of the gods.

Nicely done, Jenny, he thought. Maybe the gods know more than we do after all.

* * *

**JJ**

The hardest part was when the team showed up.

Labor had gone a lot easier this time. Thankfully her crankiness with Will was dismissed as just the usual pregnant woman's irritation. No one considered that she might have wanted someone else watching their child come in to the world. And then the process of it all blotted out any other thoughts.

She had a daughter.

Will, was, of course, the slightest bit disappointed. "Aw, I was sure it was gonna be a boy." He said as she was placed in his arms. She immediately started fussing. "Guess she's a momma's girl."

Right.

The team crowded around the bed, all jockeying for position to get a good look at the perfect little angel in her arms. And she was, healthy and perfect and already deeply loved. She looked up at Spencer and could see it shining in his eyes.

Will picked Sophie up carefully, but as she already had a few times, she started to fuss. "Hey, Spence, want to hold her?'

"Oh, um, no, you know how babies get around me. Give her to her godparents."

"Yeah, don't subject her to the Reid effect just yet." Emily said, opening her arms.

As Sophie continued to fuss JJ watched Spencer move to Henry's side. "Hey Henry, have you had lunch yet?"

"Nope."

"How about if I take you to the cafeteria and fill you full of junk food before your Dad takes you to Uncle Hotch's house for the night?"

"Cool!"

JJ watched Spencer and Henry go, and seeing as how Sophie simply was not going to settle, eventually the team wandered out, leaving the new baby with her and Will. When the last person left Will brought the baby back to her. "As soon as Spence and Henry get back I'm gonna run Henry home to get some more clothes, then I'll drop him with Jessica before I come back. I'm sure Spence will be willing to sit with you while I'm gone."

When an Unsub gives you a lead in like that you take it, she thought. "I used to think you were worried about Spence and me." That I'm using profiling techniques on the father of my son is rather telling. And right after delivering a baby, no less.

"Yeah, well, you ain't steppin' out on me with two kids, I know that."

JJ chuckled. "It wouldn't be 'stepping out' you know. We're not married."

"Yeah, well, that's on you. I'd marry you in a heartbeat, you know that."

And once again, she thought, we fly right by the point. She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but then the door opened and Henry ran in, climbing up on the bed and setting Sophia off again. "Uncle Spencer bought me a paper airplane kit!" He crowed, showing off his new treasure.

"Hey, all right!" Will grinned. "You and Jack can play with them tonight. Okay, say good night to your mom and your sister, I'm gonna take you to Aunt Jessica's." He turned to Spencer, who had walked in behind Henry. "You don't mind staying with them until I get back."

"No, not at all."

There was a bit of bustle getting them out the door, but then, finally, they were alone. Sophie was still fussing a bit when Spencer shut the door and then the curtain and came back to very carefully sit on the edge of the bed. "Does he suspect anything?"

"Not that I can tell." JJ replied.

"Are you all right?" He looked so concerned.

"For ten hours of labor?" She smiled at him. "I'm fine. I wish you could have been here."

He frowned a little. "You know, I'm not really complaining about missing that."

She chuckled. "Want to hold her?"

The eagerness in his eyes told the tale. He reached over and picked Sophie up more slowly and carefully than anyone had yet, as if she was made of the most fragile, spun glass, and then carefully rested her over his heart. She immediately quieted and began to suck on her fist. "Daddy's girl," JJ whispered, not wanting to disturb the moment, the depth of love growing there. "Is Sophie a good name?"

"It's perfect. It's beautiful. She's beautiful. You're beautiful. Oh, Jenny…"

She reached over to lightly caress her daughter's back. "I know. I love you too."

 


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter Twenty-one**

**JJ**

Sophie fussed when nearly anyone picked her up. She flat out cried every time her diaper was changed. And JJ noticed that she didn't quite feed like Henry had. "Funny." She murmured to Will later that night.

"What is, cher?"

"She's not looking at me. Henry always looked up at me when he was eating."

"Maybe she's just tired. It's been a busy day for her."

"Yeah, that's probably it."

* * *

Sophie started screaming when they buckled her into her car seat. She screamed all the way to the car. She screamed the entire ride home. She settled to mere fussiness when JJ pulled her out and settled her to eat, but when they went to put her in her crib as soon as they laid her down she screeched.

"Okay, I am about to take her back to the hospital." JJ told Will.

"Let's call my Momma, see if she has any advice."

Based on Will's mother's advice they tried rocking, swaying, a bit of mild bouncing, but all that got was a magnificent belch and a bit of spit-up down Will's back. "That was it. She just had some gas." But the moment they put her down she screeched again.

JJ's mother suggested swaddling, wrapping her snugly in a thin blanket. That seemed to help a fair amount. "Well, all right then." JJ cooed to her daughter. But as soon as she went in the crib, there she went.

JJ's sister suggested white noise. They tried a fan, the tried the vacuum, they tried the dryer. All of the above made it worse, not better.

Hotch said Haley had had good luck with a pacifier. But that just lay in her mouth as she screamed.

The one person I'd love to ask, JJ thought, is the one person I can't.

Having run out of relatives they  _could_  call and people with children they went to work on the team. Starting from the top, "Do you have a mobile over her crib?" Rossi asked.

"Yeah."

"Try taking it down. It might be scaring her."

It was worth a shot. Will took it down and stashed it in the corner, and then they made sure she wasn't hungry and her diaper was clean, swaddled her snugly and put her in her crib.

Not a peep.

"Uh huh," Rossi said. "Keep me posted."

* * *

Sophie was born in early December. Thankfully they had a couple of loving Godparents for Henry, always able to take him around to do the usual holiday stuff while they stayed home with a newborn, or to keep JJ company while Henry went to spend time with his Dad. Of course Spencer was more than willing to stay and help out while Will took Henry to see Santa and maybe find a gift for Mom and Sophie. It's different when Spencer is around the house, JJ thought, somehow he makes it so quiet.

She came over to where Spencer was sitting with Sophie in his arms. She was utterly silent, just there while he marveled over her. "Any word from the Academy?"

"Nope."

JJ sighed. Not only was there some question of waiting until Henry was older, there was also the question of one of them transferring to a non-BAU job. Spencer teaching at the Academy was the best choice, for a lot of reasons. If they weren't hiring then they were better off staying as they were, which was impossibly hard. "I have a question for you." She told him, as she sat. "Something I probably should have asked before."

"Anything."

"Is there anything I should know? I mean, anything special I should do?" She chuckled. "You do not know how badly I wish I could call your mother for advice."

"About?"

JJ chuckled, "If she takes after her father. I hate to break it to you Spence but you're not exactly normal. You did start college at thirteen."

"Ohhh," he smiled down at Sophie, his voice barely above a whisper. "Your Mom thinks you might be a baby genius, Sophie. Are you? Hmm?" Sophie yawned and wrinkled her nose and cooed a little. "You should start reading to her."

"Read to her?" It couldn't be that simple.

"Mmm-hmm, but not just read her a story before bed. I mean…" He shifted Sophie slowly and carefully so she was sitting with her back against his chest, supported in the crook of his elbow, and gently pulled a book from his bag. "As much as possible just read to her. Read her what you're reading, read her the paper in the morning, or read her a case file. Not an eBook, real paper." He opened the book in his lap, and for a moment JJ swore Sophie was utterly fascinated.

"That's all?"

"Yeah, she'll do the rest." He held the book open and put his finger under the first words so Sophie could follow along and he kept his voice low and gentle.

" _Dagonet, the fool, whom Gawain in his mood_ _  
_ _Had made mock-knight of Arthur's Table Round,_  
At Camelot, high above the yellowing woods…."

JJ could feel her eyes well up with tears.

* * *

"What are you doin' there cher?" Will asked as he and Henry thundered into the kitchen

JJ was sitting in the armchair, the various bits and bobs of a nursing mother on the table beside her, her feet up on the ottoman, a quiet and content Sophie tucked in to her elbow while she read the baby the newspaper. It was just after New Years, Sophie was more or less a month old, and while the snow fell outside they were going to take down the Christmas tree. "I'm reading the paper."

"To Sophie?"

"Yeah," oh great, how to explain this one. "It's supposed to promote early literacy; I'm trying to give her an edge."

"You didn't read to Henry like that."

"He's a boy, for one, and he has his father's charm. How much more of an edge does he need?"

Will just grinned at her as he came over. "Naw, come on Sophie. You're too little to get your head stuffed with all that learning. Don't want you gettin' too big for your britches, hey." He picked her up and danced her around in a gentle circle. She promptly vomited all over his shirt and started screaming, "Aw hell."

JJ just sighed and tried to calm her down again.

**Spencer**

It was another late night, another quiet, moonlit night, much like the one he had spent a year ago, the night they had come back from being held in Hackett's cell. The night he had spent mourning the loss of a potential being, what he'd firmly believe would be his only night of being a father. He had honestly believed that JJ would have taken the pill that would have shifted the hormonal aspect of her uterus and made it impossible for an embryo to implant there. It had been the only logical decision.

He had never been so glad that humans were illogical.

His printer quietly hummed into life over at his desk. He still disliked computers, they gave him eyestrain if he stared at them too long, and they made it impossible to truly sort and process information. But that remote printer was turning into a godsend. JJ was keeping a digital scrapbook, as she had for Henry, ostensibly to more easily send pictures and notes about the baby to her family. And if anyone asked she'd originally posted Henry's Godfather on the mailing list for the scrapbook pages, she just didn't bother to take him off for the new baby.

Right.

As soon as the printer stopped humming he put down his tea and went to fetch the page that printed. There was a gaily decorated picture of Sophie, watching as her brother built her first snowman, complete with JJ's detailed description of the experience.

She's alive, he thought as he went and slipped the page into the album he was keeping, she's real. And even if I can't be there, at least there is this.

**JJ**

Time passed.

One month turned into two

Eventually Henry returned to Kindergarten, JJ returned to work, and with a new baby at home Will returned to full-time parenting, more or less. The first day back she returned home to find Will and Henry watching a hockey game, and Sophie nowhere to be seen. "Where's Sophie?" She asked.

"In her crib," Will replied. "I'm sorry, cher, but I didn't know what else to do. Every time we brought her out here she started fussing." He shook his head. "Something ain't right about that child."

JJ went in their bedroom and over to the crib below the window. Sophie was lying there, contently watching the clouds roll by. It's not ideal, she thought, I am not doing right by you. But what else can I do? At least you're safe. That means a lot, doesn't it?

* * *

JJ owned a breast pump, for the last for week of maternity leave she had tried to pack what she could into the freezer, and even once back at work she spent the first month in the BAU so she could sneak off whenever she needed to, Rossi very kindly loaning her his office for the duration given that she no longer had her own. But eventually she was going to have to return to the field, and that meant eventually Sophie was going to have to switch to formula.

Sophie was not happy with this plan.

She almost violently threw up the first six brands of formula they tried. An all-organic one their pediatrician suggested finally stayed down, but she screamed after each feeding. Eventually she started screaming when the bottle came near her. "I swear to God she would rather lie in her crib and starve than come out here with her family and eat." Will said over the phone. "I don't know what to do."

"I know." JJ sighed into the phone. She looked over at Spencer, who looked as worried as she felt, so worried that he was already hitting the antacids. He had even tried feeding Sophie, but they swore it looked like she was forcing herself to eat, like it was something dreadful she had to do.

"JJ," Rossi said, calmly. "Have him try a trick my mom used to try. After she eats, rest a bottle of warm water on her stomach. Not too hot, just a little warmer than skin. Mom used to use a hot water bottle, but you can improvise."

"Did you hear that?" JJ asked Will.

"It's worth a try."

"Okay, let me know."

Twenty minutes later Will called back. There was no sound at all in the background. "She loves it. She's happy as a clam now."

"Thank God." JJ grinned at Spencer, and then looked over at Rossi. "It worked."

Rossi nodded. "Stomach cramps. The heat eases the muscle contractions."

"Ahhh, that makes sense. You are officially my hero."

"Uh huh."

* * *

Time passed.

Winter rolled into spring.

Sophie continued to grow. Will regularly commented that she was one odd duck of a child, she didn't really smile, she didn't really laugh, and she hated lying on her stomach. Once she had the motor control when they tried to pick her up she would throw herself backward, pushing them away. She almost never looked you in the eye, and when you tried to force it she'd start crying. She hated bouncy chairs and swings, car trips and strollers. Mostly she seemed happiest in her crib, or after she got used to it, in her car seat, quietly watching him and Henry from a distance. "She just doesn't like people, I guess." He said.

"Did you say anything at her last doctors' appointment?" JJ asked him

"Naw, she's all right. She's just got her own mind is all."

**Spencer**

He went to visit as often as he dared. He liked to use the excuse that he wanted to give Henry some one-on-one time, while JJ and Will were wrapped up with a newborn. It was entirely true, he loved Henry, had wished he was his own son countless times. But he also wanted to spend what time with Sophie he could. Thankfully, so long as he was with this BAU team he and JJ not only saw each other at work but they had the same days off.

Today, for example, was his idea of perfection. Will had gone somewhere, he had taken Henry to see the new exhibit at the Smithsonian, and now JJ asked him to hang around and corral the kids while she took care of a few things in the kitchen. He was tucked into their big armchair with Henry at his side, Sophie propped in his elbow, a mug of coffee at hand, reading them tales of the Round Table while the rain hammered the window.

"Did your Dad read you stories, Uncle Spencer?" Henry asked.

"Not really. My Mom did all the story reading in our house. My Dad left when I was about your age."

"Oh." Henry digested this bit of information. "So who took you to the park when you were little?"

"Um, Mom, mostly."

"Who took you out to play sports?"

"After he left I didn't play sports. I didn't get to do all the nifty stuff you do with your Dad."

"Oh."

"My Mom read me stories all the time though. It was our favorite thing to do together, even when I was older." He smiled at the memory. "We still read to each other when I go out to visit."

Henry smiled. "Mom likes to read to us too. Dad doesn't, he said he doesn't want us growing up too smart for our britches."

"There is no such thing as too smart."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poem excerpt is from The Idylls of the King by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Published between 1856 and 1885 and no longer under copyright.


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter twenty-two**

**JJ**

Time passed.

Spring became summer.

At the first 'family' cook-out of the year Sophie fussed and fussed as she was passed from person to person. JJ wanted to try Spencer on her; he had been carefully keeping his distance, coming over to pay more attention to Henry than to his own daughter, watching from afar so as not to arouse anyone's suspicion. Today was a perfect example; he hived on as Rossi's dogsbody in the kitchen, rather than be on the patio, passing the baby around. Eventually she got to be too much and JJ went and put her in the playpen in the spare bedroom. She seemed happier there.

Despite the baby monitor at one point JJ wandered in to check. She found Rossi had gone in to check ahead of her. "Sophie," he called from the doorway. Sophie was clearly awake, had flipped over onto her stomach was looking rapturously at the Barbar doll in her crib, but she wasn't paying him the slightest bit of attention. "Sophia," he called to her again in a soft sing-song, turning her name into a Mediterranean lullaby.

"What are you doing?" JJ asked.

"Just checking on her for you; she's what, six months now?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Just wondering, she never looks you in the eye, does she? That's too bad; she has the prettiest hazel eyes."

"No, she really doesn't." JJ noted. "Maybe she just doesn't like people."

"Uh-huh."

* * *

Time passed.

Summer became fall.

"Come on sweetheart. Come to Mama." Sophie looked up, was looking up, finally, if not at her mother's eyes, then at least in her general direction. She swayed back and forth and then looked up again. "Come on, you can do it." Sophie swayed a little more, then it was one hand and one knee, and then another and then finally she was crawling briskly across the floor.

"Took her long enough to do that." Will commented.

"Oh, she's just a little behind. Henry was a little early." Sophie crawled over to JJ and grabbed hold, reaching for up without looking. JJ scooped her daughter up into her arms. "That's my lovely girl!"

Sophie looked at her mother. Not in her eyes, that wasn't something she ever really did, but at least at her face. This time JJ noticed a frown, a look like she was thinking of something. As she watched her daughter's eyes twitched a little, and then a very familiar look came in to them. She reached up and patted her mother's cheek, "Mama." Not just babbling the sounds, JJ thought, she just sorted that out.

JJ couldn't help but give her daughter a grin as big as the sun.

**Spencer**

"You should have seen it!" JJ crowed to him. "She looked exactly like you! Her eyes went twitchy and you could just see her making the connections and then bang, she made that genius leap and just put it all together."

Spencer just grinned. They were in Texas, where summer was lingering and it was frightfully hot still, enjoying shade and cold sodas while they waited for the local who had found the body to join them at the crime scene. It was in these small, precious moments that he got to savor being a father. And the mangled body and various other bits of a crime scene did nothing to distract him from savoring the pleasure. "You know, most children don't make that connection until eleven months, she's a bit ahead there."

He had no reason to complain. Henry was starting first grade, was happy and healthy and well-adjusted. And it sounded like Sophie was doing just fine. And even though the love he shared with their mother hadn't been physically expressed in well over a year, it was still as deep and endless as the sea.

It was all going according to plan. And if every so often JJ came into work with a bit of guilt about her eyes, as if she'd been with Will the night before, well, he wasn't hurting her. And if he had been as celibate as a monk since that night in Hackett's cell, well, he would survive. It was worth it for the children.

He was quite content.

JJ was quiet for a long moment. "Henry started first grade last week." She pointed out. "How much longer do you want to wait?"

He considered this. From a strictly emotional basis he didn't want to wait any longer, he truly wanted to be with his family immediately. And he did consider them his family, his love, his daughter and he loved Henry like a son. But from a logical standpoint…"Sometime between ages six and eight most children move into the concrete operational stage of development. This is when they eliminate the idea of egocentrism, and can start seeing things from other people's point of view. Once Henry gets to that stage he ought to be able to understand that something can happen in the family that was not caused by him, and at that point he ought to be able to better handle his father's leaving." He squinted down at his soda. "I don't want Henry to think that his dad left because he did something wrong."

"Is that what you thought about your dad?"

"No. I thought he left because I  _was_  wrong. He couldn't handle a sick wife and a freak kid."

He watched a frown mar her soft, blur eyes. "Do you still think that way?"

"Not exactly. I no longer consider myself a freak, for one, and for another I now know that his inability to deal reflects on his inadequacy, not on my existence. Still, I'd rather not put Henry through those years of uncertainty if we can help it."

"All right. What about the Academy?"

If there are two inevitable things in all of this, he thought, it's that children grow and that bureaucrats frustrate, "Hiring freeze. They've had their budget cut for the past two years now."

"Crap." JJ sighed.

"It's not a big deal. I get offers on a regular basis. If need be I'll leave the Bureau and go work for my friend Ben." He chuckled dryly. "Some of his research is fascinating."

"Yes, but you won't be as happy."

He shrugged. "You do for your children."

**JJ**

Time passed.

Fall moved into winter.

Sophie turned one. She started walking. Christmas was right around the corner.

One night not long before the holiday she got home late. As she liked to do she was tucking in the children, even though she thought they were asleep. One wasn't, "Mom?" Henry whispered.

"Hey, you're supposed to be sleeping." She murmured back as she sat on the edge of the bed.

"I couldn't sleep." He kind of looked over at the door, but the sound of dishes being washed told that Will was out of hearing range. "I asked Santa for something today, and now I wish I didn't."

"Ohhhh, well, what did you ask Santa for?" Time for another shopping trip, she thought.

Henry chewed on his lip a long moment, a sure sign of guilt. "I asked if he could make Uncle Spencer my Dad."

"What?" That shocked her into being very present. "Oh Henry! No, no, I'm not mad at you, not at all, but why would you do that?"

"Because I like Uncle Spencer better," Henry looked like he was finally confessing to a vast pit of guilt. "I love Dad, but Uncle Spencer is more fun. He likes to play games, he's teaching me to play chess and cards and do magic and he said he was going to teach me to build a kite when he weather gets nice. All Dad ever wants to do is watch sports on TV unless it's softball time."

Most parents would stop at this point, she thought, and dismiss this as a childhood fantasy, JJ thought, but my inner profiler is not comfortable here. "Uh huh, is that the only reason?"

"No." Henry chewed his lip again. "I've been trying to read to Sophie, like you do. My teacher said it made me a good big brother and that it was good to practice."

"She's right about that."

Henry nodded. "Whenever Uncle Spencer comes over he always stops to read Sophie and me a story. Good ones too, all about knights and pirates and adventure and stuff. And even when we're playing chess or something he brings Sophie out so she can watch us play. But Dad always puts her in her room. And the other day when my friend Josh came over I… I overheard Dad talking to Mr. Jenkins and…"

Uh oh, she thought, this can't be good, "And?"

Henry took a deep breath. "Dad called Sophie a little retarded." He admitted. "He said she was growing slow and wasn't right in the head. My teacher said that's a real bad thing to call someone." He scrubbed at his eyes.

JJ felt herself simmering with anger. We might not last until Henry is old enough, she thought, I might toss Will out just on general principals. "That is a bad thing to call someone. Your sister is not slow, and I don't ever want to hear you call her or anyone that. I'll be talking that over with your father." JJ sighed, "Anything else?"

Clearly there was, but it took a minute to get out. "Dad yells sometimes. I don't like it when he yells. It's worse when he yells at Sophie." He admitted. "Uncle Spencer always talks so quiet, even when you do something wrong. So I asked Santa to switch my Dad for Uncle Spencer, but now I wish I could change it because he's my Dad."

JJ sighed. "I don't think you have to worry about it, Henry. Santa knows that sometimes kids get upset and make wishes they don't really mean. He can tell the difference."

"Really?" Henry sighed in relief and smiled.

"Yeah, but if you get upset with your Dad again, tell me before you tell Santa, all right? Now you go to sleep, I'm going to go have a talk with your father."

"Yes, Mom."

* * *

Time passed.

Winter began to change into spring.

One day JJ was coming home after a long, difficult case. It was so hard when it was girls of that fragile age, when they were just starting to spread their wings out of high school only to have an UnSub pull them off. It was so very hard to see what evil could do to them. She was literally drooping on her way down the hall, and wanted nothing more than to go curl up with her daughter and listen to her son tell her about his day. She wanted to hear about the good at home, to balance the hell out there.

She was so tired she could barely get her key out of her pocket….

"Sophie! NO!"

JJ heard Will yelling, even through the door, and then she heard something she had never, ever thought she would hear in her home, the sound of skin smacking skin.

She dropped her go-bag, resisted the desire to pull her weapon, and barged through the door on adrenaline alone. She found Sophia sitting in her high chair, Will staring out the window. "Will, what the hell is going on? Did I just hear you hit one of the children?"

"Oh, Sophie just got herself a swat on the hand all right. I told her to leave the remote alone, but she was determined to get into trouble today. It's nice enough, I opened the window to air the kitchen out and she just tossed it right out." He looked utterly unconcerned about their daughter, but headed for the door to fetch the remote from the snow drift outside. "She's old enough to start training. She ain't hurt."

JJ looked down at Sophia, who was looking up at Will. In that moment she realized three things: That Sophia, who hated the TV with a passion, had sorted enough cause and effect to get the thingamabob that made the noise come on and make it go away, that while her daughter was not physically hurt at all she was utterly emotionally hurt and confused even though she wasn't making a sound, and that this was only going to get worse as she got older. She reached down and scooped Sophie up into her arms. "It's all right sweetheart." She looked up as Henry came into the room. "Has your father ever spanked Sophie before?"

"Nope, he gets real frustrated with her sometimes. He keeps saying she's disrespectful because she won't look at him and doesn't always come when he calls her."

Great. Just dandy. JJ cuddled the very quiet Sophie and tried to figure out how to deal with this. But then another thought dawned on her. "Has your father ever spanked you?"

Henry just shrugged and didn't answer.

JJ felt her vision going a little white around the edges. "Take Sophie and go play in her room for a little while, all right?" She asked him, helping him get his little sister down there. When she came back Will was in the kitchen. "Have you ever spanked Henry?" She asked him flat out.

"Couple of times," Will replied. "Every child has to learn how to respect their elders, you know that."

The white was expanding. "No. No, Will, I don't know that. What I know is this, you are never to raise your hand to either of those children again, do you understand me?"

He turned to look at her. "Aw, it ain't gonna hurt 'em none, cher. That's how my momma raised me. I dunno, maybe it's a cultural thing."

"Then I suggest you pack your bags and return to your culture!"

Will blinked a few times. "You're serious."

"You're dammed right I'm serious!" I can't even tell Spencer about this, she thought, he'd never forgive himself. "If I even get an indication that you hit either of those children, and I don't care what language you use it's still hitting, I will turn you in to CPS myself." And that, she thought, would end any chance he ever had of being a cop again.

Will was quiet a long moment, "All right. But if they grow up spoiled little hooligans don't come crying to me."

After that there was quiet and dinner, but the resentment still lingered. He's always been such a good father, she kept thinking, I never even thought to ask Henry anything about it. Hopefully this has taken care of it; hopefully. But when he came to bed she realized that while it might have taken care of it between Will and the children, she was officially past done. A moment after he landed on the bed she got up and pulled on her robe. "Where are you going?" He asked.

"To sleep in Sophie's room," she replied.

And that was that.


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter twenty-three**

**JJ**

Time passed.

Winter became spring became summer. After the night she moved out of their bed JJ moved back in, but it was never the same. Will swore she was putting the children ahead of him, allowing Sophie to disrespect him, and she refused to argue. She also started having even less sex with him than before, and when she was home he drank more, so he didn't really notice.

From her early fussiness Sophie became a quiet, good child. She was a bit on the clumsy side, still disliked loud noises, and still tended to tummy troubles. But she was usually so well behaved that no one really noticed much. Henry made it through first grade with flying colors and was looking forward to summer softball and day camp.

Spencer was still her quiet, patient rock. He would listen when they were out on a case, sit next to her on every plane trip, tell her in a hundred small looks and smiles that he still loved her, and that nothing had changed. As soon as Henry made that next big leap in development they would be together. In the meantime they spent as little time as possible in private, and what they did do in private they could have done in front of the team.

Then, one early summer day the entire world caved around her.

The day after it did, she and Sophie went to Kramerbooks and café in downtown DC to meet Emily while Will took Henry to softball practice. They were going to go annoy a certain crime writer with their mere presence, which was another way of saying that they wanted to hear Rossi read from his latest. Why not, they were in it after all. But when she was waiting in line for coffee she realized she could no longer hide her micro-expressions. "Hey, there you are." Emily said as she joined them. "What's wrong?"

JJ sighed and lowered her voice. "God, I hate profilers."

Emily took that as an admission that something was indeed wrong. "Okay, spill."

"Will and I have not been doing well. I just…I think it's over between us. No…" Might as well be honest here, "…it's been over, for a while. I just…I haven't wanted to take him away from Henry, you know, but…"

They got coffee and settled. "But…" Emily asked.

"But…. he's always been a great father, but over time he's been…well, he's always liked to hit the beer early in the day. He said it was a cultural thing. But last night I found a bottle of whiskey buried in the trash like he was hiding it."

"Oh boy," Emily just shook her head.

"Ah look, a table of ladies to join, especially this one." A familiar voice said. They looked up at Rossi and smiled as he lifted Sophie into his lap. "I assume I may join you. Granted, the discussion looks rather serious."

"Will's been drinking," Emily said. "And it sounds like it's getting worse."

"Ah," Rossi offered Sophie one of her graham crackers, which she happily started munching. "Well, it's understandable."

"Rossi!" Emily said. "No, it's not."

"Take heart in that you have been flummoxed by a master." Rossi told her. He turned to JJ. "Will has always drunk a little, probably self-medicating his PTSD resulting from Katrina, the displacement of moving to what is, in essence, a different culture, and the loss of his job which is defining to most men. Do you think his recent escalation has to do with having to raise a child with what many would perceive as a disability, or is it because Sophie isn't his?"

Damn it. JJ felt the tears coming to her eyes.

"Rossi!" Emily protested, but looked over and must have spotted those tears. "JJ? You never said…If it's not Will then who is…No, wait, I'm not going to ask that. That's horribly rude. But you never said anything!"

Rossi nodded. "I'm guessing it's because when Will gets confirmation of his suspicions he's going to leave, and that means leaving Henry as well."

"Oh crap," Emily nodded. "I can see him doing that. Does Sophie's father know?"

JJ nodded. "It was his idea not to tell, for Henry's sake."

"And that is also understandable, given his past." Rossi reached over and gave JJ's shoulder a bit of a comforting rub. "It's all right Bella." He said. "We can make it all work. Your family will help you, you know that. It wasn't going to last too much longer anyway. Any day now Sophie here is going to tell everyone exactly who her father really is."

"What do you mean?" Emily asked.

"I asked if Will's drinking had anything to do with raising a child most would see as disabled." Rossi reminded her.

"Sophie isn't disabled." Emily insisted.

"She's not developing right." JJ finally admitted. "Henry said Will called her retarded once."

"Oh that son of a bitch," Emily muttered.

"Uh huh, that's not surprising." Carefully balancing Sophie Rossi reached down into his briefcase and pulled out a pad of paper and a pen. "Most people aren't as well educated on the subject as our team happens to be." He put the paper down and wrote a word on the first page. "Let's see if she's willing to tell us today." He looked at the little girl on his knee and spoke in a gentle sing-song. "Sophia, what does that word say?"

Sophie looked over at the page in her calm, serious way. "Cat."

Rossi wrote another, "And that?"

"Book"

"And that?"

"Mama"

"And that?"

"Bear."

"And that?"

"lelphant."

Emily's jaw fell further and further as this went on. "JJ," she finally gasped out. "She's reading!"

JJ was stunned. She sat there watching as her daughter turned into some kind of miracle right before her eyes, "Yeah."

"JJ, she's not even two!"

 _Just keep reading_ , he had said,  _she'll do the rest_ , "Yeah."

"Who reads like…?" Emily's jaw finally landed on the floor, "Oh God."

"Mmm-hmm," Rossi nodded and let Sophie start drawing with his pen. "It's called Hyperlexia, precocious reading ability; usually defined as the ability to read words before the age of two and sentences before the age of three. It's commonly co-morbid with Asperger's Syndrome and Sensory Processing Disorder, and comes at the expense of having trouble with social speech and understanding certain nuances of conversation. Just like her father." He brushed the soft, brown curls off Sophie's forehead and she looked up at him with her serious little smile. "She even has his eyes. I wonder if she'll have his memory."

"How did you know?" Emily asked him.

"Other than observing those two since I met them and knowing they were in love and not admitting it? Roland Hackett was just the push they needed."

Emily was clearly going back over the details of the case. "They didn't use the Viagra."

"While it was a bad situation, they weren't in any immediate danger and he knew it. So given the variables, why would you assume a healthy 29 year old male would need Viagra?"

"Well, it's not like he'd ever done it before."

"Why would you assume that?"

"JJ didn't use the emergency contraception."

"Why would you assume she wanted to?"

Emily turned to JJ, "You….wanted this to happen?"

By now JJ could feel the tears starting to run down her cheeks. She was using the napkin to blot them before they took her mascara with them. "Spence figured out what Hackett wanted. Even with almost no contact he profiled his intentions. It was a difference between 72 hours and 40 weeks, we had to take the risk just to survive. But then I realized that Spence has as much right to his child as Will had to his."

Emily sighed. "I'm going to take that as confirmation."

JJ just sagged, and finally admitted the truth. "Yeah, and I knew  _this_  could happen." She gestured to the words on the paper. "You know what Spence is capable of, and what kind of a childhood he had. Can you imagine what he could do if he grew up in a healthy, loving family?"

"Well." Emily mused. "We did profile that that was part of Hackett's original motivation, to put geniuses in healthy environments."

"Only he did so by cutting off all ties to the past." Rossi pointed out. "You have a resource the other families do not."

"Oh?" JJ asked.

"Diana Reid." He reminded her. "Even though she's mentally ill she has successfully raised a child with this combination of traits before, and did a remarkable job of helping him maximize his potential."

"Oh God," JJ moaned. "You do not know how many times I've wanted to call her with questions."

"I can imagine." Emily chuckled. "We're going to need dresses for Sophie's first Nobel banquet. As Godmother I expect an invitation." She turned back to Rossi. "Okay, I get how you figured out that they could have made a baby, how did you know Sophie here was turning out just like Reid?"

"Oh this little one has been showing symptoms since she got out of the hospital." Rossi ran his hands over her curls again, earning him another serious little smile. "Now with some good teaching and a little loving care I think she'll take after her father just fine."

The implications of this were just beginning to dawn on JJ. "Good teaching, I was thinking about looking for a therapeutic preschool for her. Maybe I should go straight to picking a college."

"Well she'll be a legacy at CalTech." Emily pointed out."

"Great," JJ muttered dryly. "So what do I tell Will?"

"The truth," Emily said. "At this point you might as well. The bigger question is what do you tell Hotch?"

"Now, now, one thing at a time," Rossi handed Sophie back to her mother and gathered his stuff to go to his reading. "You look after your family; leave Aaron and Erin to me."


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter twenty-four**

**JJ**

"I guess I've been suspecting that." Will said at last.

To save a certain amount of angst Emily had called Morgan and they'd taken Henry and Sophie to a movie. Not that Sophie liked movies, but Emily had a book and a quiet coffee house would suffice. Now JJ and Will were at the kitchen table and she had told him everything. "I'm sorry." She said, "Although that isn't anywhere near adequate."

Will sat back and looked at her. "Well, at least I can say it took an IQ of 187 to put one past me. Tell me, cher, you been jerking my chain for three years now, or eight?"

JJ felt the tears come to her eyes. "Henry is your son, Will."

"Now I ain't so sure about that. You were so reluctant when we got together in New York and you never did want to marry me. Goin' on, insisting on him being Godfather. And I see the way them two are together. A man can be fooled by a woman, but a boy always knows who his Daddy is."

"Why would I do that? Why would I lie back then?"

"I dunno, free babysitting, maybe?" Will shook his head. "Naw, if the FBI is anything like NOLA PD they fire officers for knocking each other up. You two wanted to keep your jobs. I was just handy and stupid enough to make it work, that's all."

"That is not what happened! Henry is your son!"

"But Sophie ain't my daughter. Now even if we assume Henry is my son, how long you been cheatin' on me, cher?"

"It was just the one time, when we were being held by Roland Hackett. It was the only way to keep him from killing us." JJ shook her head. "There was nothing, before or since. I swear."

"Uh-huh, even with all them trips out of town? Right. And if it was just because of your UnSub there why didn't you take care of it when you found out?"

JJ couldn't decide if she was crying from guilt or anger or sorrow. "You mean have an abortion?"

"Yeah, I do. It would have nipped this problem right in the bud."

"Look, Will, just because I think every woman has a right to make that decision for herself, that doesn't mean that I would ever go there. Spencer has as much a right to his daughter as you do to your son."

"Funny, I don't see him here raising her. What kind of a man let's another man raise his own flesh and blood anyway?"

"The kind who knows what it's like to have his father walk out on him, and who wasn't going to have that happen to Henry."

Will was quiet a long moment. "Yeah, well, that's more than I would do." He finally admitted.

JJ just sniffed. "Besides, I couldn't be the one to take that potential out of the world."

"What, for being a freak like her father?"

Anger, JJ decided. She was quiet a long moment. "So, are we going to work out some kind of custody arraignment?"

"I don't know." Will got up and started collecting his things from around the apartment.

"Do you even want to see Henry anymore?"

"I don't know." He repeated. Then he stopped and sighed. "No, that ain't right. I love him. And I know he thinks I'm his father. Hell, maybe I am after all." He shook his head. "You know, cher, even if none of this had happened, DC ain't been good for me. I need to go get my head on straight."

JJ nodded. "I guessed that."

"I got a friend, said he could get me in at DC Metro, but there's something I got to do first. And back home's the place to do it." He rubbed the back of his neck and sighed again. "You're good at telling stories, cher, how 'bout we just tell him I need to head home 'cause they need me down there. Uncle Spence is gonna move in here, help take care of you and his sister. I'll write to him, and when I get back we can go back to spending time together."

"Do you want to make that formal?"

Will shrugged. "Naw. You've always been a good momma. And any man who let another man raise his child for goin' on two years so that man could stay with his son ain't gonna get in the way."

"Well, that's true." JJ sighed herself. "I am sorry."

"Yeah, so am I."

"Are you going to stick around to say good-bye?"

"Yeah, sure."

In due time, everyone came home, and Will talked to Henry in his room a while. After a long consideration JJ decided to trust him and not listen. "At least he's not leaving a note." Emily pointed out.

"Oh God." JJ realized. "I haven't called Spence."

"Yeah, you might want to wait on that until after Will leaves." Emily pointed out.

"True," JJ looked at her two friends. "Are you two mad at us?"

Emily had fully briefed Morgan along the way. Now he shook his head. "Given that you were trying to protect Henry, no, I can't be mad at you two. I get it. Although I'm not too sure why you waited, Reid loves Henry. And there's not that much difference between a father and a father figure."

"Oh, Reid was probably too close to the problem to see it that way." Emily said. "He never had a father figure, only a father who walked out, so he fixated and didn't want to do that to Henry. Maybe if his uncle had lived it would have been different." She turned back to JJ. "At least you didn't have to go to Paris, right? If anything I feel bad for Reid, he had to be apart from his family all this time." She sighed. "I remember how hard it was to be away from Declan, and he wasn't even mine. And when Hotch had to send Jack and Haley away?"

"Yeah, well, at least Spence could come over to visit." JJ pointed out.

"Still, it's not something I could do." Morgan admitted. "Speaking of Hotch, what are you two going to tell him and Strauss?"

"Rossi said he had a plan." JJ told him. "And if that doesn't work then…Spence said he'd leave the Bureau." She shook her head at the look on their faces. "The private sector would pay him a small fortune, you know that."

"Yeah, but we don't want to lose either of you. You're both too…important to us." Emily admitted.

"Well, let's hope Rossi can come up with something." JJ turned and looked as Henry came out of the bedroom, clearly having been crying, and climbed into her arms. Will had his bags with him. There were quiet good byes.

And that was that.

* * *

Later, after everyone left, JJ sat at her kitchen table and quietly fell apart.

Even though this had to happen, even though he had been unhappy before, and they hadn't had a decent choice, even though she would do anything for her children, putting them first before all, she couldn't help but be miserable. Will had been a big part of her life for a very long time, and hurting him, ending this, was just awful. And in her misery she was completely alone.

And then she felt a hand on her shoulder.

JJ turned and looked up at her best friend. "I forgot I gave you a key." She sniffed. "Did Emily call you?"

"No." Spencer said as he dropped into the chair beside her. "Will did."

**Spencer**

It was not right to sleep in her bed. It was not right for him to sleep in the bed she had shared with Will. It would certainly not be right for Henry to wake up and find him there in the morning. So, once JJ had gone to sleep Spencer made up a bed on the sofa. But he did not lie down right off. He didn't know what would happen tomorrow, he realized, there were too many variables. For once in his life the future was out of his hands.

And there was one thing he had to do tonight.

It was a full moon night, as it had been so many times before. He slipped into the nursery, where, as he expected, the blinds were still open, and stood a moment watching the clouds chase each other in the silvery light. It wasn't just a visual experience, the softly moving abstract, the chasing of light and shadow, were a vision of calm pleasure for him and, as he had expected, for someone else as well. A little pair of eyes was still open. "Hey Sophie," he murmured very quietly. "Are you awake enough to want up?" She raised her arms to him, and he scooped her into his arms, settling in the rocker nearby. It was the first time he'd ever been alone with her. "I heard you started reading today." He murmured as she tucked under his chin. "You don't know this, but I'm your father and I am very proud of you."

Sophie leaned back a little and looked at him. He watched as her eyes started to twitch, as neurons came to life and synapses closed and new dendrites formed new connections in her marvelous little mind. Is this how Mom felt, he wondered, as she held me, and she realized what I could become? He watched as the light of discovery came into his daughter's eyes. Then Sophie reached up and gently patted his cheek. "Dada"

"Yeah," he murmured as she put her head down again. "Yeah, I am."

 


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter twenty-five**

**Spencer**

The next day Spencer and JJ stood in front of Hotch's desk, waiting for the hammer of doom to fall.

Hotch came in quietly with files in hand, followed by Rossi and looked at them for a few moments. He did not invite them to sit. "I spent the morning reviewing the Federal Code of Conduct rules. As you know the Bureau takes the Code of Conduct very seriously and has let Agents go in the past for violations of that code. There are a number of regulations aimed at preventing sexual harassment but they only apply to a supervisor/subordinate relationship and in cases of adultery. Now neither of you is legally married and while Dr. Reid does have significant seniority it is well known in the department that he is not considered an alternate supervisor in times of need, so none of these regulations would apply in this case. Once those regulations have been taken into consideration each individual unit is expected to submit ethics guidelines to the committee, taking into account the unique nature of the work performed by said unit."

Wait, Spencer thought, they had talked about fraternization rules in the department before. "I thought we had rules in place?" He'd never read them, he never expected he'd have to.

"We do, but they are specific for the BAU. Given the nature of the work we do, that we have to get into each other's heads in order to better understand the UnSub it is understood and accepted that personal relationships will develop between agents from time to time. However, to protect unit cohesion and to better enable us to function with the law enforcement units we are called upon to help casual liaisons are prohibited."

Spencer looked over as JJ spoke up. "I'm sorry but Garcia and Kevin…"

"…do not go into the field together. They do not confront the UnSubs as we do. They do not represent the Bureau in the field as we do. Now I know that Agent Gideon was made aware of a certain…football game a few years back, but other than that were you two involved in a…private relationship before the Roland Hackett case?"

That, Spencer thought, was a very formal question, "No, sir."

"No, sir."

"Has there been any such relationship since the Roland Hackett case?'

"No, sir."

"No, sir."

"And I do not expect there will be one in the future. If that becomes the case I expect one or both of you will put in for a transfer to a different unit. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"Yes, Sir," Spencer sighed. He'd been afraid it would come to this. He stuck his hand in his pocket, feeling the weight of his badge. The only thing better than the day that was placed in his hand, he realized, was the day JJ put Sophia in his arms. "In that case, I…"

Rossi reached over from where he'd been sitting on the couch and stopped him. "Let the man finish"

Hotch had changed files, looked up at them as if Spencer had not opened his mouth. "Now, should you two decide to marry in the future your relationship would fall under a different set of guidelines."

JJ blinked at him. "Isn't that kind of patriarchal?"

Rossi leaned over to look past Spencer. "Be patient with the FBI," he said, "It's still trying to outgrow Hoover."

Spencer had been considering this. "I'm assuming the theory behind that would be that a relationship involving a public commitment would imply stability, making the relationship a known factor that other agents could take into consideration when weighing information, as opposed to the secretive, unknown factor inherent in a more casual relationship. It would also carry a certain moral weight that would make it more acceptable in some of the more conservative parts of the country, as opposed to a more casual relationship that would cause some law enforcement officials to question the morality and by extension the judgment of the team."

Rossi's just nodded, "Something like that."

Hotch took back the floor. "In order for both members of a married couple to remain within the unit they have to agree to certain guidelines, professional behavior during all on-duty hours and an ability to continue to work together with the team being the primary concern. I would expect that should you two decide to marry at some point in the future you would continue to maintain the same standard of exemplary behavior you have set in the past."

"Yes, sir."

"Yes, sir."

"Good. The other concern involves couples with children. In order to minimize the risk of a child losing both parents in one day you two would not be going into the field together if it can at all be helped. You will be assigned to different partners during an investigation, and when we go out to confront the UnSub one of you will remain out of the line of fire, preferably back at the station. Understood?"

"Yes, sir."

"Yes, sir."

"Unfortunately JJ as the parent of record this falls on you. While you do not need to give the name of the father of your children, you will need to provide the name and contact information of a guardian who can take custody of your children in case something happens in the field. And it cannot be Reid, even if you list him as father; it must be someone outside the unit, preferably outside the Bureau. You will also need to provide a child-care plan for your file before you are cleared to leave town on a case. The forms are available from HR. And before you ask, I have the same forms on file myself."

JJ nodded. "I can ask my sister to be guardian, I'm sure she will. Child care is going to be a fun one, though."

"Well, you'll have time to sort it. You both earned a disciplinary note in your files and a ten day suspension without pay."

They were understandably shocked. "Why?" Spencer asked.

"For falsifying reports in the Roland Hackett case; I'm sorry, I know it's difficult but the FBI needs to know what happened. I expect you both to amend those reports before close of business today. Now I have been able to request that you serve those suspensions consecutively as opposed to concurrently in order to avoid drawing down the manpower level of the unit past the point of functionality. JJ, you begin your suspension today, head out as soon as you finish that report. Reid, you start in ten working days."

JJ just chuckled and shook her head. "I don't know if I should complain about the unfairness of a suspension or be grateful for having a month to sort childcare."

Hotch looked up with something that might actually have been a smile as he set the open files in front of them, "Sign." They both signed the relevant documentation and then JJ went through the formality of turning over her ID and service piece for the duration of her suspension. It was rather embarrassing, Spencer thought, but that might be the point of it, as behavior modification. "All right, that's the paperwork. We might want to go share with the rest of the family." He nodded out the window.

While Hotch went to process the paperwork the three of them, JJ, Spencer and Rossi headed down to the bull pen where Garcia, Morgan and Emily had been Not Watching with little success. "Well?" Emily asked.

"Ten day suspensions, first me, and then Spence," JJ told them. When they all grumbled she just shook her head. "It gives me a chance to sort out child care. Besides, it could have been worse. Oh, and a strict warning to keep our hands off each other." She waited a beat, "Unless we decide to get married."

"Oh." Emily looked at the two of them. "So, um, are you going to talk about it?"

JJ shrugged. "Not much to talk about." She turned to Spencer. "Still want to?"

Only more than anything, he thought. "Sure."

"All right then."

It took a moment for what just happened to sink in, and then Garcia went all a flutter. Then it was back slapping and handshakes and hugs and congratulations all around. Even Hotch was drawn into it as he came back into the room.

One person, however, had something to say. "Are you serious?" Rossi asked "I spend over two years watching you two trade off heavy looks and little, private smiles across the conference table and cuddling up together on the plane, ripping out my Italian heart and shredding it into little pieces of misery and this is the best romance you can give me? What is it with you young people today?" He held a hand up again and turned to face Spencer. "Whatever you do, do not use the word Vegas in this conversation. If you do I will shoot you in the other knee. You two are going to have a proper wedding, so help me."

JJ chuckled. "Are you going to pay for it?"

"If I have to."

* * *

Sometime later Hotch encountered Rossi in the hallway. "So I never asked you." He said. "How did you get Strauss to let us change the unit guidelines so quickly?"

"I reminded Erin that it takes two people to break a fraternization rule. Or to create the need for one." Rossi told him.

Hotch nodded. "You were right, I don't want to know."


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter twenty-six**

**JJ**

After amending the Hackett case file, a procedure that left her nearly twisting in embarrassment, JJ headed out to start her suspension. Given that it was summer she collected her children from the day-care center, stopped at the market for some supplies, and went home. Once there she gave everyone a snack, settled Sophie down for a nap, settled Henry down in front of some cartoons, and gave her kitchen the good scrubbing she'd been meaning to give it for weeks now. Once everything was as she liked it she settled herself at the kitchen table to confront some hard facts. By the time Spencer showed up with two bags of groceries under his arms the truth was laid out on her table for them both to see, between rent, utilities and child care alone, more than three-quarters of her salary was going to be gone. And then there were trips out of town for reimbursement, and car upkeep, and Sophie was going to need special help along the way and….. "I don't know how I'm going to do this." JJ drooped. Then a sizzling sound and a savory scent caught her attention. "What are you doing?"

Spencer had come in emptied the bags, and started cutting things. Now he was clearly moving on to the next step. "Making dinner," he replied. "I didn't think you would mind."

"I didn't know you knew how to cook." Will had never been much in the kitchen, where he was from men only cooked certain things on special occasions. He could make a mean pot of gumbo, but the day-to-day simple stuff was beyond him.

He shrugged. "I used to have to cook for Mom. I'm not good at anything fancy, but I can do a few things." While he put what looked to be chicken in her largest skillet he came over and looked over her shoulder. "You're only a GS 12?'

"Yeah, what are you?'

"A fourteen."

That might help a lot. "How did you manage…oh, three PhD's." All agents start at a GS 10, they went to a GS 11 upon making Supervisory Special Agent, then to a GS 12 after completing profiler training, but then you went up one for each PhD, with GS 15 and up reserved for actual unit chiefs, like Hotch. Then there was overtime, and a differential for living in the frightfully expensive DC area, but still. "What step are you on?" That was based on time in service and performance, not education and rank.

"Six."

JJ frowned. "I'm a seven, and I joined the FBI a year after you. How did you manage to get behind me?"

"Hankel," he went back to the stove to stir something.

"Oh." Yeah, Hotch probably wouldn't have put him down for a performance based raise that year. "Well, there's no way around it. If we want secure child care we're looking at close to six grand a month." And it had to be secure, in case work decided to follow them home. A college student looking for experience or a place to stay was not going to do. Granted he had already said they were going to be pooling funds. "Do I want to know how much Bennington costs a month?"

"Um, I don't know actually. It's automatically deducted."

JJ blinked at that. "You don't know?" Bennington, from what she had heard, was private and offered high quality care and comfort for their patients. A place like that never came cheap.

"No, here," he wiped off his hands and turned her laptop around. A few moments and he turned it back, with the browser open to a banking page with his account information. "Just take what you need to take care of the children. You know, a child care center isn't really the best set up for Sophie at her age, we might think about a live-in nanny." He went back to the stove to stir as something threatened to boil over.

JJ looked at the amount in the accounts. Then she looked again. Then she counted digits. She turned and looked at the man standing at her stove. He had taken a minute to change when he came in, now he was standing there in worn cords, a shirt fraying around the collar and cuffs, Chucks, glasses and an old dishtowel tucked into his belt as a makeshift apron. She checked the balances again. Nope, nothing had changed. But there was no way she ever would have pegged Dr. Reid for having multi-millions in his bank account. "Spence, where did all this come from?"

"Well, I have my salary direct deposited, and lecture fees, and since I have Mom listed as a dependent I get her SSI and disability every month. And, you know, I like to play poker when I go visit out there." He turned from what he was pounding and grinned. "I have to keep my skills up to beat you guys."

"Yeah, all that would only cover about a quarter of this… maybe."

"Um, yeah, most of that comes from my friend Ben."

"Ben?"

"Ben Silverton, we went to CalTech together, did a joint project for our doctoral thesis. He decided to try to make something of it, his words, and started a company, Lanmark Engineering."

Something clicked for her. "Ah, I remember reading about that in the  _Times_ , they went public last year, he and his silent partner made a….." Wait….

"Yeah, that. These days he tends to work with people in the academic field who aren't comfortable with having people know they're profiting off their research, and really aren't comfortable with people in general, so he keeps it all very quiet." Spencer shrugged and reached past her to put bowls of salad and mashed potatoes on the table. "Like I said, take what you need. But I think a live-in might be the easiest, Sophie will do better with consistency until she's older. Although you might think about a bigger place if you go that route."

JJ just blinked at him and turned to a fresh page on the notepad in front of her as the apartment filled with the scent of cooked chicken and green beans. "Okay, live-in nanny, new house…."

* * *

It was amazing how quickly you could solve a problem if you had enough money to throw at it.

She'd been suspended on a Monday. On Monday night a quick bit of research had led her to three child care employment agencies that might fit their needs and six houses that met both their criteria for what they wanted. On Tuesday she met with a realtor and one of the agencies, on Wednesday the other two and decided to work with the third. On Thursday she had a more in-depth interview with the agency, and started looking at the houses. On Friday she looked at the last four, and then Spence took off a little early to meet with a lawyer his friend Ben sent over. By Friday night she no longer had to worry about child care, or college educations, or her own retirement.

On Friday night she insisted they watch a movie, something familiar, to give her head a chance to stop spinning.

On Saturday they went and looked at the two finalists for houses so Spencer could provide some input, and chose one. Sunday she took the kids to church while Spencer went to the library, church being the one place he would not go with them, and then they met at the park for a picnic and to watch Henry's softball game. On Monday of the second week of her suspension they started looking at nannies.

By the time JJ came back to work, sending Spencer off on his two weeks of suspension, the family had grown by one. Mrs. Nelson was a retired special education teacher whose husband had died of cancer a few years before. With all her children grown and married she had sold her home to pay his bills and then gone into the live-in nanny world. Before she had been a teacher, though, she had been an Agent. "Back then getting pregnant got you a desk job." She'd told them. "I didn't see the point so I went back for teaching, the hours were better and I do love children." She clearly considered Spencer an odd specimen, already doted on Henry, was fascinated by Sophie, and still had her concealed carry permit. "If someone like one of your UnSubs comes around," She said, "I'll make him work for his trouble."

The new house was a quiet four story brownstone in Georgetown. Mrs. Nelson was going to have the basement apartment, she would have privacy when Spencer and JJ were home, and could easily stay upstairs when they were out of town on a case. The attic was unfinished, pending trying to sort what they wanted to do with it. The remaining two floors gave them three bedrooms, a tidy living space, and a larger kitchen, per Spencer's request. It was also within walking distance of public transportation, his only other criteria. It was in a quiet, safe neighborhood, within easy walking distance of good schools, a market JJ liked and a park. He spent the first week of his suspension moving her and the children and helping Mrs. Nelson get settled. He didn't plan to actually give up his apartment until after the wedding.

He was supposed to be working on that, but on Thursday of his second week JJ discovered the one problem inherent in her new family. She'd actually discovered it the night before, when she'd come back from a case, but she'd only been able to provide a temporary solution this morning. And she knew it was only temporary, that's why she was fuming about it as she came into work. "Hotch!" She called to him to stop him leaving the bull pen. "Okay, I don't care what he does, but the next time Spence gets in trouble suspend me instead."

"You know it doesn't work that way." Hotch said, mildly. "Why do you ask?"

"This is why!" JJ said, pulling a large box out of the shopping bag she'd snuck out that morning.

It was a chemistry set.

The entire team started chuckling. "Now that is a visit from the bomb squad waiting to happen." Morgan pointed out.

"And it's only going to get worse as Henry gets older." JJ replied. "I think I overheard the words 'model rocket' last night. Hotch, I cannot leave the three of them alone."

Hotch just smiled. "You're the one choosing to marry him."

JJ sighed and put it under her desk, planning to take Mrs. Nelson's advice and take it to the forensics lab lab at lunch to be dealt with. She was going to go fill her coffee to start her morning when Rossi came up to her. "JJ I got an interesting phone call already this morning, someone looking for a job referral for DC Metro."

Well that rang some bells. "Let me guess, Will?" Rossi nodded. "I didn't know he was back in the city. We split up fairly peacefully, all things considered, so…do what you think best."

"He was a good cop; I think he'll do well there."

"I agree. Oh, and Rossi…" JJ considered a moment. "Tell him he can call, if he wants."

* * *

Later that day her phone rang. "Hey cher."

"Hey Will." She found a quiet corner, figuring on a day in the office everyone would understand. "I didn't know you were back in DC."

"You mad at me about that?"

"No, not at all."

"Good, 'cause I had to come back for Henry's sake. He is my son after all."

"Now you're sure about that?"

"Yeah. I said some stupid mean things there, cher, and I'm sorry."

"That's all right." JJ said, forgiving him. "What we did wasn't right either."

"No, but I get it. I had my heart back home, my backside in DC and my head in a beer bottle. Y'all couldn't trust me to do the right thing, not all that twisted up. Turns out that cultural thing I kept going on about was just an excuse for being an addict. But now I'm clean and I'm gonna make it right."

JJ was stunned. "How did all this happen?"

"I went home to my family, they beat it in to me." Will chuckled. "Kinda literally. But it worked for me. Now I'm trying for this job, gonna see if I can find a meeting to keep on the straight and narrow, once I get it all together I'd like to start seeing Henry again."'

"Absolutely. You're still his father, you're still family, we do not want to come between you two, at all."

"Thank you. Henry told me you two are getting married."

"Yeah, in a few months."

"Well congratulations, cher. He's a good man; he'll be good to you."

"Thank you." She took a deep breath; please don't be mad at me for this Spence, please. "You said you wanted to try to make this right?"

"Sure."

"When you said meeting, did you mean AA?"

He sighed. "Yeah, cher, I did. I admit it."

"Call Spence and tell him that."

"Why?"

"Trust me."

 


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter twenty-seven**

Later that evening in a diner downtown Will and Spencer sat across from an FBI agent from the Organized Crime unit known only as Bob and a DC Metro Detective known only as Ted. They had all come here after a meeting of the Beltway Clean Cops for coffee and to hash over the events of the past. "What amazes me," Ted said, "Is that you manage to create this big of a cluster fuck and somehow not hurt either of the children."

"We managed to put off the day of reckoning until Henry had reached the Concrete Operational Stage of development, that way he was less likely to take on any personal blame in the failed relationship, while at the same time Sophie is too young to truly comprehend the events surrounding her." Spencer told them.

Ted listened to this, then looked to Bob and Will. "Does he always sound like that?"

They both nodded. "You should see him read." Will drawled. He turned to Spencer. "What I don't understand is how you managed to stay clean with everything going on, especially when Emily died."

"Why do you think I spent so much time on your couch?" Spencer retorted.

"'Cause y'all had a thing going for JJ."

"No, at the time I figured you two were together."

"Serious?"

"Yeah."

Ted stopped them. "Who died?"

Spencer started. "Do you remember the Ian Doyle case a few years ago?"

"Wait," Bob stopped them and signaled the waitress. "Just leave the pot."

* * *

The scary thing was that the meeting in question finally assembled around JJ's table. They were having honesty for breakfast along with the eggs and bacon. "Okay, now, let me see if we got this timeline straight." Will drawled as he put the bacon on the island. "Y'all went on your first date after Gideon gave Spence here tickets to see the Skins for his birthday."

"Yeah," JJ nodded. "It, um, didn't go well. Spence spent most of the game in the bathroom; too much noise and crowd." She'd been told she was not cooking so she had settled at the kitchen island with some coffee.

"And honestly, now that I think about it, too much intimidation," Spencer was at the stove stirring the eggs. "I didn't really fully understand age regression as a factor until I started reading up on the condition for Sophie's sake. I know it was my twenty-fourth birthday, but figure I was probably more like twenty-one or twenty-two. And I took a gorgeous blond twenty-five year old to my first football game."

"You were out of your league." Will chuckled.

"I was so out of my league." Spencer agreed. "Totally shot any self-confidence I had straight to hell."

"Yeah, but then you said a few months later you met a girl who helped with that."

"Oh," JJ nodded, "Lila."

"Lila?" Will asked.

"Lila Archer, the actress." At his look she pulled over her laptop while she spoke. "He was supposed to be guarding her from a stalker while we worked the case. Apparently she pulled him into her pool and was all over him."

"You serious, cher?" JJ turned the laptop around, showing a certain infamous picture from the front of a gossip rag. Will whistled. "Well, that ought to put some steel back in your spine."

"For about three weeks, if that, not even close to long enough to do anything." Spencer brought the eggs to the island.

"It takes three weeks to make a move on a girl?" Will sounded skeptical.

"I kind of like to plan things out logically." Spencer explained. "Anyway then we had to deal with Randall Garner."

"He came after the team using intel he got through Spence's mom's journals." JJ explained. "And he shot Elle, a former teammate, in her home." She accepted the passed toast. "First time that happened."

"Yeah, that freaked out everyone. I tried to help Elle work through it, but a few weeks after she came back we were on this case in Dayton and she was either attacked by the UnSub or…"

JJ shook her head. "It was a very questionable shoot. Elle ended up leaving the team. "This," she said to Spencer, "was not your fault."

"I still think I could have done more." Spencer sighed into his coffee, "Said something to Gideon or something. Anyway, then you had that case with the three girls, that left you shaken for weeks."

"And then you had the one with the kid downtown who kept thinking he wanted to murder prostitutes." JJ volleyed.

"And then the thing with Morgan in Chicago." Spencer fired back. "That hit all of us."

"See, that's y'all's problem." Will pointed out. "Work kept getting in the way."

"This is true." Spencer nodded. "And then I met Tobias Hankel. This was all of maybe a year after our big date."

"Yeah, you already told me how that worked out." Will turned to JJ. "But this is the part you don't know. You remember your first trip back down the next week? I took you to Johnny's Po-boys over on St. Louis?"

"Yeah, best sandwiches I ever ate." JJ turned to Spencer. "They had this thing with fried oysters; it would probably be deadly more than once in a life time, but it was so amazingly good."

"Yeah, I know." Spencer nodded in agreement.

"You know…wait…" JJ frowned. "You never told me you went back to New Orleans."

"Actually that same week-end, my friend Ethan had an apartment across the street from that place. I detoxed in his bathroom."

JJ's jaw dropped. "Seriously?"

Both men nodded. "Cher, you two crossed finer wires than any two I've ever seen." Will told her.

"No kidding."

"I was convinced I could stay clean on my own. And I did all right with it." Spencer nodded, "Until Frank Breitkopf killed Gideon's girlfriend in his own home."

"And then he left. Just like your dad." JJ remembered. "And then we had to try to integrate Rossi in; that took some doing."

"And then Garcia was shot."

"Where was I during all this? Wait, going back and forth to New Orleans." She did not look at all accusatory, just understanding.

"Yeah, I remember when Garcia got shot." Will nodded. "I came up to DC that time. First time you had to shoot somebody."

"Well, he went after my family." JJ looked over at Spencer. "I thought you were going to meetings then?"

"Not yet. I was hanging in there with Ethan and, um, Lila to talk to, but I still figured I could handle it."

"Lila?" JJ asked.

Spencer sighed. "I don't have that many friends outside of law enforcement or the academic sector, neither of which is at all comfortable with the idea of addiction. But Ethan was a jazz musician and Lila is an actress, they're both comfortable around people who made those kinds of mistakes and are atoning for them."

JJ sighed. "Spence, what happened with Hankel was not your fault."

"No, but what happened after was." Spencer was so quietly firm about that. "It wasn't until that case in Chula Vista, when Jack Vaughn blew that kids head off right in front of me, that I started going to meetings."

"See, here's what I don't understand." Will spoke up. "Why that case? It ain't like y'all ain't seen evil before."

"Most UnSubs have some kind of psychological issue going on, either it's organic or they're acting out past trauma, but something in their lives has lead them to be out of control and this is their way of coping. Not Jack Vaughn. He was completely sane and lucid. This was his job; it was what he did for a living. He was in complete control the entire time."

"Spence, his daughter had just been kidnapped and raped." JJ pointed out.

Spencer shook his head. "JJ, I was there. He stood there, listened to my argument, made his decision and then killed that kid in completely cold blood. That's the only time I've ever seen that. And then he walked away clean." He noticed the questioning look on Will's face. "Witness Protection, he was a former hit man for the Boston mob, turned state's witness."

"Oh yea, them boys are bad like that."

"Anyway, it put my entire faith in the system I swore to serve in question. I spent that entire week-end wanting to get high just to avoid the question and the memory of that kids head blowing up."

JJ gave a cynical chuckle. "And we spent it in Disneyworld."

Spencer looked over. "You couldn't have known. And after that we had some difficult cases. That one where the sadist was torturing women in Philadelphia, I went with Hotch to go interview Chester Hardwick and he dammed near killed us."

"Hotch said you talked him out of it."

"I do my best work under extreme terror. And then there was Owen Savage…."

"That was that kid you were telling me about." Will said.

"You really related to him, didn't you?" JJ asked gently. "Of course now I get that, thanks to Hackett."

Spencer smiled and nodded. "And then the next week we were in Miami."

"Where someone was pushing really hard for Will and me to make our relationship public and serious," JJ finished.

Will chuckled, "Yeah, me. I was head over heels gone on you cher, I admit it. Granted I was still getting over the storm and had just lost my best friend on top of it, so I probably wasn't in the best head space."

Spencer frowned. "I would have answered that Emily and Morgan; they both seemed to be pulling for you two to get together."

"Emily was, at least." JJ agreed. "And here I was dithering because there was one guy who was totally there but I felt pushed and not ready and the guy I really wanted really didn't seem to be there at all…"

"If you're talking about me, I was still doing recovery work, even that late in the game." Spencer admitted. "I really wasn't there."

"Yeah, well, we also have to account for hormones." JJ informed him. "By then I was already pregnant."

"Ohhh," Spencer nodded. "And once you announced that I knew I was out of the picture, at least that sort of way; until Roland Hackett."

JJ turned and looked at him. "Honestly, you were very mellow on the trip back from New York and you weren't in the hotel that last night, you weren't there for breakfast. You said you spent the night visiting with an old friend. I remember thinking you might have relapsed…"

Spencer shook his head, "No. Actually Lila was in New York that week-end. There were no drugs involved."

"Ahhh, so that's when and….why that started." Spencer nodded his agreement. JJ smiled, just a little. "Well, I can't say I blame you."

"You and Lila Archer? Well, I'll be." Will turned to JJ. "See, knowing all this, I figure I was always gonna be a temporary thing. Once Spence got his head on straight you two would have ended up together. You tell me, think back, when would you have gone for it if it hadn't been for me an' Henry?"

"Oh that's easy, the standoff in La Plata." JJ answered quickly. "Emily and Spence were being held by a cult leader, it nearly turned into another Waco, would have if they weren't there. Funny, I really didn't worry about Emily, I knew she'd be fine, but I kept thinking oh my god what am I going to do if Spence doesn't make it. And then you and Morgan just barely outran the explosion." She just shook her head and sighed as she turned to Spencer. "If I hadn't been pregnant and committed to Will I would have been all over you."

"Well that's interesting to know."

"Please tell me you at least had some kind of company that week-end. I know Emily went to stay with friends a few days."

"Actually Lila flew out."

JJ considered a moment. "You know, I'm honestly glad of that."

"And in the meantime I was turning my life over hurricane style." Will admitted. "We were just a few years off the storm, I was already drinkin' too much, or maybe still, and my partner just got killed while hiding he was gay. I found out my best friend was lying to me the same day I lost him, and then I had to go explain to his fiancée and his family and my family and the rest of the force….it was a mess, let me tell you. Then I find out Henry's on the way. A chance to start all over, rebuild everything, right? 'Cept it wasn't, it was runnin' from everything." He shook his head. "Hell, if I'd a thought about it I might have done the same thing, it was good for Henry, but I'd a done better doing it with my head on straight. Least that way I wouldn't been stuck in a hole, like I was all those years, never getting myself better."

"I think I was doing all right." Spencer said, carefully.

"Spence!" JJ protested. "You met and broke up with Austin, nearly busted your Dad for killing Riley Jenkins…"

"I didn't though." He pointed out.

She continued, "Had to go back over everything that happened with Tobias when we caught Amanda, caught Anthrax…"

"Anthrax?" Will asked.

JJ's head spun. "You didn't hear that. It was a national security case." She turned back to Spencer. "Then you got shot. How did you manage to get through that and stay clean anyway?"

"Painfully," he replied.

"And the Reaper attacked Hotch. I've been reading up too, all the shaking up in the team could not have been easy, you really don't do well with change, do you?"

"No," Spencer admitted. "That was a tough year. But we made it through, until you got transferred to the Pentagon." He looked over and sighed. "I honestly thought I'd never see you again. Eventually they would move you somewhere and you two would have to marry so Will could move with and that would be that. That's when the migraines started. And Lila met her current husband and broke it off. "

"And the higher your career flew, cher, the more I felt like I was sinking in my own grave." Will admitted. "It was worse when you couldn't come home and talk about work no more. They stuck a wall between us then."

JJ nodded. "And then there was Emily."

"Yep," Will nodded. "It didn't seem like it was near to long enough to deal with that before Hackett made you two do what you did." He sat back with his coffee. "I can understand why we didn't have this talk right off; I was not in any kind of shape to do this then. Hell, I wasn't in any kind of shape to do this when we did. It's amazing what finally sitting down and getting your head out of your ass will do for you."

"You know, I really was trying to do the best thing for Henry, and we didn't want to shake up the team again." Spencer replied. "But now I have to admit that part of it was being on the right side of the secrets for once."

"For once," JJ admitted. "I'm crying off on hormones, I was not thinking straight."

"Ted was right, it's amazing how this long a cluster fuck could have turned out two healthy kids." Will said, "And managed to stop so many bad guys along the way. All right, we've got to do this right from now on. Y'all are getting married in a couple of months; I think that's a good thing. I got no problem with y'all being' Henry's step-father, I know you love that boy. And I'm gonna be here in the city so I can still be there for Henry, and Sophie, if she needs it. I may not exactly be her step-father…"

"But that's the closest description of the relationship." Spencer finished. "And we both need to stay clean."

"Amen to that."

JJ looked at the two of them. "Why do I feel like I just inherited a male harem?"

Will just smiled, slow, "Because you did, cher."

Spencer smiled faster, "Only not in the same bed."

"Naw, we ain't going there."

JJ couldn't help it; she started laughing at the two of them. One all emotion, one near pure logic, both flawed, honest men who cared about her and loved her children and had decided to be friends about it. Well, all right. "I guess we're family then."

Will nodded, "Yep, family."

Spencer blinked a moment as he assimilated, "Family."


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter twenty-eight**

**JJ**

Later that night JJ went home. She parked in the garage, let herself in the small back yard, and came across their nanny taking out her trash. "Hey, Mrs. Nelson, no explosions?"

"None that I heard."

"Well, that's a relief. Good night."

"Good night."

She let herself in the back door, locked it behind her, set the upstairs security, and doffed her jacket and such in the mudroom. In the tidy kitchen she found a supper keeping warm, spaghetti, salad, garlic bread. Picking up her bowl she headed into the living room where Henry was already in his pajamas, and watching TV. "Hey you, what are you watching?" Whatever it was, it wasn't sports.

"Hey Mom, Mythbusters, the guys are collecting data on what happens if you're underwater and something blows up."

"Ohhhhh." Explosive science, hard to tell if this was better or not. "After this it's bedtime, no exceptions. Where's Uncle Spencer?"

"Upstairs giving Sophie her bath."

"All right, come up when this is over."

"Yes, Mom."

She went upstairs, following the sound of happy talk and giggles. There was Miss Sophie in the tub, having herself a splashing amount of fun and there beside the tub, complete with knee pads, was her very happy father. "Well you two look like you're having a good time."

"We are. We had spaghetti for dinner and we needed to wash it out of our hair." Spencer sputtered as a particularly healthy splash caught him right across the face and glasses. "I probably should have left my contacts in."

JJ chuckled, set down her bowl, took his glasses off his face, and dried them for him. "I noticed the spaghetti, thank you so much."

"It's not that big a deal, I opened a jar."

"Hey, for a working mom that can be manna from heaven." She carefully threaded the glasses back onto his nose.

"Thank you. By any chance did you see a chemistry set around here."

"I did. I practiced some magic on it too."

"Magic?"

"I made it disappear."

"Why?" He turned to coo at Sophie a moment when she demanded his attention. "I was going to show Henry a few tricks with it."

"Yeah, not here, even though I'm sure you can do it safely I specifically went for a quiet neighborhood, which means that the neighbors would call the cops if they saw purple smoke or heard any loud bangs, that sort of thing. And do you really want to be explaining yourself to DC Metro?"

"Hmm, good point. All done?" He turned to coo some more, as he rinsed Sophie off and started getting her out of the tub. "Maybe I can arrange for some lab space at George Washington."

Where they have sprinkler systems, JJ thought, and flow hoods and safety gear. "That might be a better idea." It sounded like the TV was winding down downstairs. She found her dinner again. "Okay, you get her; I'll get him, meet you downstairs in thirty minutes?"

"Deal." She corralled Henry on his way up the stairs, switched places with Spencer and Sophie for teeth brushing and then finally got him into bed. "So, did you and your sister have a good day with Uncle Spencer?"

"Yeah, he's always fun. I like the way he always brings Sophie out, even when she gets fussy." Henry snuggled down as she settled the covers. "Dad called today. He asked if I still wanted him to go with me to softball on Saturdays."

"And what did you say?'

"I said yes. But he said I ought to check with you first."

"Good for him. Of course you two can go together."

Henry nodded, even though he frowned. "Do you think Uncle Spencer likes soccer or softball better?"

"Uncle Spencer likes chess; he's not into sports. Why?"

"Do you think it would make Dad mad if I tried soccer next year?"

"Given that I went to college on a soccer scholarship it better not. We'll see what happens when next summer comes around. Right now get some sleep."

"Okay. I love you Mom."

"I love you too, kiddo."

She went to tuck Sophie in, to spend a little time reading to her, while Spencer said good night to Henry and then went downstairs. By the time she changed into something actually comfortable and got down there he was just finishing the dishes. She dropped into one of the kitchen chairs. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"A lot of things. Including the dishes."

"You're welcome. JJ, have you ever heard of chameleon diamonds?"

"No." And there goes his mind in another direction, she thought.

"Chameleon diamonds are thermochromic, photochromic and phosphorescent. They usually start out as a green color in natural sunlight, will turn grey in complete darkness, blue under fluorescent light, and grow steadily more yellow in the heat, eventually turning almost orange when it gets up around 200 degrees. And some will even turn violet in the cold."

"Sounds pretty, what causes it?"

"They're not entirely certain. They're fairly rare stones, and they have yet to find one both large enough and flawed enough to test."

"Flawed enough?"

"Good diamonds go for jewelry. They think it's a combination of hydrogen and nitrogen being trapped in the carbon, but that's a hypothesis." He smiled into the sink of soapy water. "It's still a scientific mystery."

"Wow. Well, speaking of mysteries, want to watch one? I am not up to emptying boxes tonight."

"Sure."

She went to find and boot up the movie. Not long after he came in with popcorn for her and granola for him. "Mmm, thank you." It was generous; she knew he couldn't stand popcorn

"Sure." He dropped onto the couch beside her, then, slid around onto his knee in front of her. "So, um, I have a question. When you made the chemistry set disappear, did you do it like this?" He held up a 50 cent piece then with a gesture made it disappear out of his fingers.

JJ raised and eyebrow and chuckled. He tried so hard sometimes. But on him trying hard was kind of adorable. "Spence, what are you doing?"

"Showing you a magic trick."

"Yeah, but why? I mean, you're trying to be charming, I get that, but what's going on?"

"I'm trying and it's not working?" He sagged and frowned in defeat.

"No, it is. It's cute; I'm just trying to figure out why." It was, but she was also confused. "Besides, you showed me that one already. You palmed the coin in your other hand."

"I did?"

She chuckled again. "Yeah, it's over there." She pointed to his left hand.

"Is it?" He opened his hand with a bit of showmanship so she could have a look.

There was a diamond ring sitting in his palm.

JJ gasped as he took it and put it on her finger. Not large, not flashy, clearly custom made, a lovely shade of gold, with the stone very securely set. It won't snag, she realized, or get in the way of drawing a weapon or attract undue attention. The stone was a very, very pale green. "Oh my god, it's beautiful." She said as she admired it. "I didn't think we were going to do an engagement ring."

"Given the situation I honestly hadn't thought about it, but then I was talking to Garcia and she said if I didn't she would do 'a thing'. I consider that a serious threat." He looked down at her hand. "You do still want to get married, right?"

"Oh yeah," she pulled him in and kissed him before pulling him up to curl up with a movie. "I still want to marry you."

* * *

Later that evening she walked him to the door. "You know, you could stay." It was the first time she'd actually brought it up since they went on suspension.

"No, I can't." He replied. "We gave Hotch our word. I'm not going to break that."

She sighed. This was either him missing certain nuances of conversation, like Hotch really meaning don't do anything where the FBI can see, or else this truly was a very old-fashioned sense of gentlemanly honor. She chose to favor the last. "All right," she said with a sigh. "If you can hold out two more months then I can."

He smiled and leaned down to kiss her good night, as he had ever since their suspension had started. Only this time it wasn't just loving and sweet, this time those long fingers threaded into her hair and he let loose some of the hunger he kept so tightly controlled. We forget, she thought, how he had to hide things, how well he does that. And then for a long moment she didn't think at all. "Good night Jenny." He finally murmured into her hair. "I love you."

"I love you too Spence. Good night." She watched him walk out the back yard and watched his old Volvo drive away before she closed the door and reset the security. On her way to bed she stopped at the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water to take with her. When she reached in her eyes were caught by the almost sky blue stone in her ring.

Wait.

She pulled her hand out and looked at it under the incandescent light above the sink; pale grass green. She looked again under the fluorescent light in the fridge; pale sky blue. She opened the freezer and placed her ring down on top of the ice tray, closed the door, and counted ten minutes, then opened it and looked; pale blue-violet.

A scientific mystery, she thought, maybe just like our daughter. Just like him.


	29. Chapter 29

**Chapter twenty-nine**

**JJ**

All Spencer had asked for by way of the wedding was not big, small; the smaller the better. If they could keep it to immediate family and the team he would be thrilled. He hated large parties with a passion. So JJ and her family kept it small. Not a lot of people, the team, family, some old friends in an old antebellum house outside of the city with a small chapel on the grounds; simple, elegant, not a ton of fuss. He wore his best suit; she wore ivory lace with flowers in her hair. Emily was the maid of honor, Morgan was the best man. No grand procession, just gather at the front of the chapel and done.

Except for one hold up, Rossi; "I can't believe he's late." Emily grumbled.

"He went to get his wedding gift." Garcia told them. "You can't start before it gets here."

"Why not?" Spencer asked.

"Because," was her only answer. "It's a big thing, it has to be here."

"How big are we talking?" Morgan wanted to know.

"Well, it's not physically big, not really, but it's, like, big. You just…trust me. You need to wait." Garcia was almost aflutter with excitement.

Emily looked over and clearly decided to try another angle. "So how much did this big thing cost him?"

"About twelve thousand."

That shocked everyone. "What, is it a new car?" Morgan asked.

"No, bigger."

"Some art thing?" Emily tried.

"Uh-uh. Bigger."

JJ sighed. That was far too much, whatever it was. "Garcia, just tell us."

Garcia had been watching the walk that curved around the chapel from the parking lot. Now a slow smile spread across her face, "Okay, medical transport from Vegas to DC and back."

While they all stood there trying to make sense of that a voice spoke up from behind Spencer and Morgan. "Hello son."

They turned. There stood Dave Rossi, with an elegant, serious blond woman on his arm. Spencer's jaw just dropped, "Mom?"

Diana Reid nodded. "Oh, don't you look handsome. I like the short hair." She reached over and smoothed a bit of dust off his lapel. "David arranged it. It's only for the day, I'm flying back tonight, but I'm very grateful for the chance to be here."

"Mom," he pulled her in and hugged her, how could he not. "You…you're here. You're….?"

"Unmedicated, now, now…" She held up a hand to ward off his concern, "Just since yesterday. And the nurses are under strict direction to put me back on my meds for the trip home. But I wanted to be clear today, to remember this." She stepped back and turned to the bride. "And you must be JJ? Welcome to a very strange family."

While they spoke Spencer turned to Rossi, but before he could speak the older man stopped him. "I told you I wanted a proper wedding. This is part of it. Now I've got two aids to help me look after Diana and make sure she gets safely on the plane, you go enjoy your day. You can thank me later."

Spencer couldn't say anything; he just stood there gaping like a fish.

Diana put a hand on his elbow to get his attention. "Well, going to escort your mother to a front-row seat?"

Spencer offered her his elbow and walked her down to the front row. Then he went back for JJ.

And that was that.

**Spencer**

As they were going into the house for the reception one of the staff came up to Spencer. "A man left this for you; he said to give it to you right after the wedding."

Spencer murmured his thanks as he took the envelope and opened it, carefully. He wouldn't put it past an UnSub to try something on this day of all days.

The envelope held Redskins season passes to a VIP booth at FedEx Field and a note.  _Tell Hotch I take full responsibility. JG._

Morgan looked over and started laughing, "That son of a bitch."

* * *

The nice thing about having it in a house was that it offered a number of smaller, private spaces. In the library with the big windows Rossi settled Diana Reid, allowing her to visit with people and not get overwhelmed. It was here that Spencer found her, as usual with a book on her lap, "Hey Mom, having a good time?"

"Yes, actually, I just had a lovely visit with your old friend Ben. He's still quite the charmer."

Spencer smiled, chuckled a little. "Good, I'm glad. There are a couple of people I really want you to meet though."

"Oh really? Who?"

Spencer reached down and behind him and tugged his shy little shadow into view. "Well the first is Henry here. This is JJ's son, my godson. Henry, this is my Mom, Dr. Reid. Can you stay here a moment? I'll be right back."

Henry looked up at Spencer and nodded, then looked over at his mother. "Hello."

"Hello Henry. It's very nice to meet you. Tell me, has Spencer been reading to you?"

Henry nodded. "Uh-huh. We've been reading  _Treasure Island_."

"Ohhh,  _Treasure Island_. Stevenson. That's quite the good one. Good, reading is very important." She looked up as Spencer came in again. "And who is this."

Spencer sat on a footstool, right near her chair, and held the little girl in the party dress on his knee. "Mom, this is Sophia. Sophie, this is your Grandmother Diana."

As Diana's eyes began to fill Sophie looked over and pointed to one of her favorite things in the whole, wide world, "Book."

Diana nodded. "Oh my yes, darling, it is a book. Would you like me to read to you?" As Sophie almost threw herself into the chair she looked over at her son, "Hyperlexia?"

Spencer nodded, "And a host of other symptoms. She's already tuning out just like me."

"Oh marvelous! How wonderful!" her smile beamed like the sun. "Do you want to join us Henry?" She held out her arm and Henry scrabbled into the chair to sit on her other side. "Proust. This was one of Spencer's favorites when he was a boy. Let's see now…Many years had elapsed during which nothing of Combray, save what was comprised in the theatre and the drama of my going to bed there, had any existence for me, when one day in winter, on my return home, my mother, seeing that I was cold, offered me some tea…"

Spencer sat there on the footstool at his mother's knee, listening while she read to his children as she had to him, not hearing the people in the doorway, looking up only when JJ sank down beside him.

It was a magic to be savored for a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quote from Du côté de chez Swann by Marcel Proust. Published in 1913 and no longer under copyright.


	30. Chapter 30

**Chapter thirty**

**Spencer**

JJ had asked him if she could pick the hotel for the wedding night, if she could make all the arrangements. It seemed unfair at the time; since she seemed to be doing everything else, but if anyone could move, get their son started in the second grade, and keep working as a profiler while planning a wedding and honeymoon it was Jennifer Jareau. At her request he started working out a therapy schedule for Sophia during that time instead, and did most of her BAU paperwork as well.

Hey, it worked.

The only hitch had been the leaving of the wedding. While they had said good-bye together, driven off together, a bit down the road they had stopped and switched cars so he could accompany his mother back to the airport. At JJ's request she had gone on ahead to 'make sure everything was ready'. At his confused look Rossi had said she probably wanted to shower and change before he got there. Why this was clearly meant to be somehow naughty as opposed to efficient was kind of beyond him.

When he got to the hotel she had left him a note.  _The bathroom is to the left as you come in. Stop and change into your pjs first, before you look._

All right.

As soon as he stepped out of the bathroom and into the bedroom proper he understood. It was a small room, with an almost too small bed. A fire glowed in the gas fireplace. And she must have asked for blackout curtains, since it was otherwise dark….

"I wanted one more night." She said from where she was sitting on the bed. "And I do not want to know what the Bureau shrinks would make of that."

There was something vaguely disturbing about this, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. "Neither do I." He told her as he put the item he brought out with him on the nightstand, went to sit on the bed, facing her.

"I just…" She sighed in the near-dark. "All this time I just kept thinking that if we had one more night together we might have found a better way of sorting it all. Or maybe one more night with you and I would have been completely unable to return to Will, I don't know."

"We made the best decisions we could, Jenny." All this time he hadn't allowed himself to think about it. Every night, after every case, she went home and he just packed her away in his mental sock drawer. She was safe and well and could competently manage her own affairs and so did not require thinking about. The day-to-day minutiae of her life did not require his consideration. He had focused on work, on research, on any and every other option to occupy his mind so he would not think about it. And if, from time to time, she came in and looked a little guilty over her morning coffee, well, he could tell she was not being hurt or abused in any way, so he deliberately did not think about what that might mean.

Now he thought about it. Now it hurt. Not jealousy, but that she'd had to endure that, those years. No, Will hadn't deliberately hurt her; he was a decent guy who just needed to get his head on straight. But through carelessness or self-centeredness or the standard ignorance of the common American male it hadn't been good for her, and in his mind, sex was something that ought to be done exceedingly well or not done at all. Now he had every desire to kiss every unpleasant moment out of her skin and show her exactly what he had been taught, how it ought to be.

No, he knew exactly what he wanted to do. But first things first, it had been two; going on three years, and this was not going to work if they were both this hungry. He settled closer and reached up to thread his fingers through the fine silk of her hair. "I'm just sorry you had to put up with all that."

She shook her head. "I'm not, it was for Henry. I just wish would, could have had one more night where no one would know."

Ah, that's what was bothering him. All right then. "One more night," he agreed, before he leaned in to kiss her and pull her down with him.

She tasted like wedding cake, like sugar and almonds and love.

**JJ**

After the first round was over, that first hunger satisfied, JJ rolled to drape herself over Spencer in the soft dark. "Somehow I always remembered it taking longer."

"It did." He replied. "It was my second go of the night, remember."

"Oh, right." She remembered now. "I think I blocked that part out."

He just chuckled as he played with her hair. "Give me a moment, I want to try something."

"Try something?" She should have known that he wasn't going to tell her. After a moment of listening to his heart she sighed. "You know, it's funny. I always thought I liked guys with lots of emotion, very passionate, but I'm finding I value simple logic and common sense more and more as I grow older. I'd rather work things out than fight over them."

"Where is this coming from?"

"Just thinking how nice it's been the past few months, coming home and not having to deal with a lot of angst around the house."

"I've found much of the angst can be resolved with some clear communication. What do you know about Vulcans?"

"Vulcans? You mean like Mr. Spock, pure logic, no emotion? That's a bit far for me." She groaned a bit as she realized something. "Does being married mean I have to go to ComicCon with you?"

"Maybe." She could hear him grinning. "It's in San Diego; we can make a vacation out of it. Maybe fit Disneyland in there somehow."

"We'll see." She rather thought a compromise could be reached there.

"Anyway, the idea of Vulcans having no emotions at all is a common misconception. Vulcans, as a matter of custom and policy, suppress or think past all emotional influence by living lives of rigid emotional self-control through meditative techniques and training of mental discipline. They're actually exceptionally emotional; they developed techniques to suppress their emotions precisely because of the damage they can cause if unchecked."

"Interesting," JJ commented. "So, what's your point?"

"Don't mistake logic and self-control for a lack of passion." Spencer threaded his fingers through her hair again and leaned down to kiss her, a kiss that felt much more claiming than before. "I want to try something."

She felt his recovery growing against her thigh. "What?" she murmured when the kiss broke

He still didn't say, but kissed her again, then found the soft skin above her pulse, her jaw, her collarbone. Kissed and kissed again until she was back to humming with desire. "Roll over." He murmured to her, encouraging her to roll away from him, to spoon back against him.

She felt him reach back for the nightstand, heard the small snap of a bottle opening. Whatever was happening, she still felt safe and comfortable and was willing to try. "What are you doing?"

"Trying something," his lips found her neck again, even as fingers trailed down her back and over her backside. Then cool, well-lubed fingers were probing her gently. "If this hurts tell me."

"Mmm," after two natural deliveries it would take a lot to hurt anything down there. But it was a little early in the process, which explained the lube. He slid one finger in gently, then another, softly exploring the inside of her vault, specifically the front of it. "Mmm, I'm not complaining but…oh." Those long fingers, longer than anyone she had ever met, found a particularly pleasant spot in there.

"There?" He murmured in her ear as he stroked it again, sending a shiver of pleasure through her. "Just there?" He seemed to be honing in on a spot that just felt amazingly good. His other hand crept around her to press over her mons, to find that spot from the outside as well as the inside. Finally he pressed in rather firmly, almost painfully. "There?"

He pressed from the inside and all of a sudden she felt a certain other awareness that set her squirming. "Oh, I have to…" go, she thought, suddenly grateful that this inn had a bathroom in every room.

"No you don't." She could feel him grinning. "I'd just have to find it again. Shhh" He slid his fingers free, only to replace it with that which was now fully recovered, pulling her leg and thigh back over his hip, settling so she was tipped back against him and he could find that spot, gently guided by his hand outside. "There?"

When he'd pulled his fingers free the urge subsided, but with the new pressure it was back again; or maybe it just felt good, hard to tell, "Um, maybe." He shifted slightly and it grew more intense. "No, I have to…" He shifted the point where he was pressing against her insides just a hair and all of a sudden it was much stronger, but he was holding her too still to squirm, "Spence, I have to…"

"No you don't." All of a sudden he pressed down hard against her mons and used that hold to roll over so she was draped over top of him, with him still buried inside her, pressing against the point from the inside and out.

She melted.

It was the strongest sensation she had ever felt, like being taken right to the very edge of the biggest orgasm ever and just hanging there, for what felt like days on end. She couldn't move; every muscle had melted to languid heat. She couldn't speak; all she could do was wail in pleasure so strong it was nearly distress. She couldn't make herself fall forward into pleasure or backward into desire, all she could do was hang on that edge, held there by the one, firm grip.

And then he laughed, the bastard. "Yeah," he murmured in her ear as he kissed her neck, her cheek, gently nuzzled in places where it usually felt so good and now every spot was so much more sensitive than ever before. And then he started touching her, his free hand caressing her hip, gently fondling her breasts which swelled so fast in response she swore later she could see it happening, teasing her nipples which tightened so hard they ached. Just over and over, soft, gentle touches that drove her completely insane, and she couldn't even beg. It felt like he was slowly prying open her soul and then delicately arousing there too.

When she swore she would go mad, when every nerve in her body was warm and aroused and ready to fire her into the heavens he reached down and gently stroked her just there, just where it would lift her up that last, smallest bit. Once, then twice then her body was flying, tightening and exploding so hard that she literally screamed out her pleasure as she convulsed on top of him.

When she landed back against him, every fiber shaking from the power of it she felt the heat leaking from her and realized he had as well, but he retained enough of himself to gently stroke down her flank one more time. "Shhhh," was all he had to whisper in her ear. That was enough. The release had been so strong that all she could do was roll in his arms and sob into his skin for a while.

When she finally recovered enough to speak she sniffed a few times and turned her head to look up at him. "What was that?"

"Lesson twenty," he said. She could hear him smiling. He pulled her down next to him, into his arms, and pulled up the covers, then kissed her gently. "We should sleep."

"Austen was right." She said as she nestled down. "That is wicked."

She fell asleep to the sound of him laughing.

 


	31. Chapter 31

**Chapter thirty-one**

**JJ**

The next morning JJ woke to the savory smell of breakfast and the sound of the door closing. She turned to look at the room service cart and her best friend, now husband. "You do still like a sausage and vegetable omelet, right?" Spencer asked her

"So long as it didn't come in a drawer; where are my clothes?" She asked, looking around for where they had landed."

"Um, good question; must be tangled up in the sheets. Want a robe?"

"Please." He ducked into the bathroom, found one, and brought it to her. "Okay, turn around?"

"Why? Um, I mean, given what we spent half the night doing, why?"

Why? He had to ask? "Because….because I'm a little shy about how I look, all right."

"Why?"

She looked at him and realized he was honestly confused. "Because I've had two kids, Spence; things tend to sag after a while. And no matter how much you run there's still a good ten pounds a child that does not go away."

"So?'

"It's…Will always said…"

She got that far before he closed the distance between them and was kissing her, long and claiming and gentling as it went on. "I'm not Will." He reminded her. "I think you're beautiful no matter how you look. You could have a dozen kids. I'd think you were beautiful. You have taken my breath away in body armor. You're amazing, and you always will be."

She just blinked at him, all that and just awake and after what happened last night now she was about to start crying on him again. "Oh. Well…way to stoke a girl's ego."

"I mean it, and while we're at it no more hiding in the dark. We're married; it's okay for people to know that we love each other, all right?"

It was a request, one she understood, "All right."

"So when I ask Garcia to book us in the same room when we go out on a case together…"

She chuckled at that. "You really think something is going to happen when we're on a case?"

"Not until it's over. But we're married now; we should be able to share a bed."

And the team can just accept that, she thought, "All right. But I will ask Garcia." Of course just then her phone had to go off. "Speaking of the team, how much do you want to bet…."

* * *

JJ walked up to DC Metro Detective Will LaMontagne and just stood there, her arms crossed, glaring at him. He put up his hands to ward off the imminent attack. "I know cher, I'm sorry. I did not call just to be a bastard, I swear."

"Then why did you call?"

Will turned to his partner first. "Remember when I said the FBI agents who were working this case included my ex? She was also on her honeymoon." His partner winced. "Anyway, this is Detective Frank Parker, this is….which name you going with anyway cher?"

"Why are we here Will?" She was about that close to kicking him in the shins and going back to the hotel to start asking about lessons twenty-one through –four.

"Because this is a BAU case; and y'all's team headed out to Honolulu this morning."

"Which case?"

"Jenny," Spencer called quietly from inside the abandoned building, now obviously a crime scene.

JJ headed into the building; following a trail of policemen, crime scene tape, and the stomach-churning stench of human decomp. It all seemed to center on a hole in a wall, once on the other side Will's reason for calling them became clear. "Oh my God," she murmured as she looked around; a small room, bed in the corner, washer and dryer, drawer in the wall. "Even the same brand of soap," one she'd been using ever since, just for the reminder, "Hackett."

Will had followed them in, nodded at the conformation. "That's what I thought. Looks like he died last night sometime, she died a few days ago. What with this heat his last few days weren't no picnic. Couple kids passing by caught the smell."

"How long do you think they were down here?" Spencer asked.

"Don't know yet, gonna have to run fingerprints on the body." Will looked around again. "You know, now I understand better."

"If they did complete a pregnancy then Hackett has already been in contact with Social Services to turn over the child." Spencer reminded him.

"I'll go call them." Will stepped out.

Spencer looked over at JJ. "You okay."

No, she thought, no I'm not. "No, I'm not." She told him. "I just can't help imagining what it would have been like, after everything we've been through. Knowing what we know now and knowing that we weren't going to make it and the only thing we could do was put Sophie in that drawer and let a monster have her in the hopes that she might survive. I just…."

Spencer came over and pulled her in tight. "Shhh, that didn't happen. We're here. Sophie is safe."

"I know. I know."

A moment later Will stuck his head back in. "You were right; Social Services got a call from a guy wanting to surrender a child."

"Where and when?" Spencer asked.

"That's the bad news," Will replied, "Georgetown hospital and right now. We got people on the way."

They moved.

* * *

In what seemed like too much and not enough time later they were sitting at DC Metro while another detective interviewed the kid who had brought the baby boy to the hospital. The child was obviously not his son. After a few the detective stepped out. "Kid says some dude gave him ten grand to bring the kid to the hospital for him."

"When were the arrangements made?" Spencer asked.

"About five minutes before the kid walked in there. Your UnSub stopped him on the street, handed him a wad of cash and the carrier; told him to take the baby to the Georgetown ER."

"Could he have known we were comin'?" Will asked.

The detective shook his head. "That was before we knew we were coming." He replied.

"Is it me or is that a major deviation from the profile?" JJ asked.

"It's huge. We profiled Hackett as a collector, in the past he's always wanted open adoption, help choose the new parents, get ongoing updates on the child. He would never just abandon the baby like that." Spencer replied.

"Yeah, but this ain't the only time, now, is it?" Will asked. "Y'all always told me that these UnSubs got a fantasy going and then they got to follow it through to the end. If that surveillance equipment was any indication he had to know Sophie was on the way, why'd he give up on her and start in on another one?"

"Good point." JJ told him. "He had to have had us under surveillance before hand, he even knew Spence is lactose intolerant, but we've did such a good job convincing everyone that Sophie was yours and not his we must have fooled him as well."

"Yes, but he's not just looking for their child." Spencer leapt in, his eyes twitching as he drew the threads together. "Every male victim had Asperger's Syndrome; he was looking for children who also tested positive for it." He pulled out his phone and started dialing.

"Yeah, but how could he tell? I mean, she was just a fretful baby until she started readin'." Will pointed out.

JJ gasped. "Oh God, the school year started last week." She reminded him. "Sophie had her first full OT appointment today."

"OT?" Will asked.

"Occupational Therapy, with an Autism specialist; that's why the UnSub ran, he must have realized we lied about Sophie and went after a known case instead." She looked over at Spencer, "Mrs. Nelson?"

He shook his head. "She's not answering her phone. We'll go to the house, Will, go to the school and get Henry."

"You got that right."

* * *

At the house they found the gate open, the backdoor open, the kitchen destroyed, and a trail of blood leading to the locked broom closet. As officers from DC Metro checked the rest of the house they opened the closet to find Mrs. Nelson clutching her side, the blood seeping through her fingers. "I'm all right." She managed to get out through the pain. "I turned when I heard someone, it threw his aim off. It's just a flesh wound, surely. I think I might have winged him, but then we were fighting over my gun and he managed to get me in here. Where's Sophie?"

As they put her in the ambulance the officers came back from checking the house. No hiding little girls.

* * *

**Will**

At Hyde Elementary in Georgetown Will started in the office and pulled out his badge. "Hi, I'm Detective Will LaMontagne; I need to pick up my son, Henry LaMontagne. I'm sorry about the short notice but it's an emergency."

The secretary looked from the badge up to him, confused. "But…someone with that name picked Henry up ten minutes ago."

"Excuse me?"

She nodded. "He even showed a badge and gun. Granted it was from New Orleans, but Henry had said that his father went back to New Orleans. We thought…."

"Did Henry leave with him?"

The secretary nodded.

"D'yall got surveillance cameras?"

Thankfully she nodded again.

"We're gonna need that." Will said as he dialed his phone.

* * *

**JJ**

"Yes, it's missing." JJ said, coming down the stairs. "That must be why the UnSub ransacked the bedroom, it was in my jewelry box." Will's old badge, the one he'd given her in New York when he made the grand gesture of giving up everything for her and the baby.

Spencer hung up the phone. "Will is getting the security camera information to Garcia. As a kidnapping case it's the FBI's now. The team is still in the air, even if they turn around when they land it's sixteen hours at best."

"So for now we're on our own." JJ asked. "God, why did he take Henry too?"

"Probably to try to answer the same question Will had when he found out about Sophie; is Henry mine as well?" Spencer pulled her in again. "Don't worry. He's never harmed the children, we know that."

"Yeah, but what's he going to do when he finds out that Henry isn't yours and he's neurotypical?"

Spencer clearly was trying not to consider that. "Let's get back to the BAU; we can work better from there."


	32. Chapter 32

**Chapter thirty-two**

**JJ**

Back at the BAU they found Will and Garcia watching the footage from the school hallway. "It's no good." Will told them. "The bastard never shows his face."

"Oh great," JJ muttered.

"On the plus side the hospital called." Garcia told them. "It looks like Mrs. Nelson is going to be all right."

But Spencer's eyes were caught by something else on the tape. "Garcia run it back." She did. "Run it again." She did. "Notice, Henry approaches the UnSub from down the hallway. Most schools have modern telecommunications equipment now; the secretary must have called the teacher and asked her to send Henry out to meet his father."

"But Henry would have known it wasn't Will when he saw him." JJ said. "So why is he going up to him."

"Because he doesn't consider the UnSub a threat; he knows him." Spencer said. "Look at his body language, he's curious and confused but he doesn't show fear until….there, just there is where he actually becomes afraid."

"The secretary said the UnSub had a gun." Will said. "Looks like Henry just caught sight of it; must have threatened him. We need to have a talk with him about that."

"So Henry knows Hackett?" JJ was shocked. "Who is this guy?"

"I don't know but I can tell you who your last male victim is." Garcia told them as her computer beeped. "The body was still intact enough for prints. Dr. Peter Barnett, looks like he's a…."

"…a chemistry professor at George Washington." Spencer filled in. "I know him, or knew him; I haven't taken any classes in a while. Wait…" His eyes started twitching as it all came together.

Will looked at this and then back at JJ. "That's that look you were telling me about?"

"Oh yeah," she said, almost smiling. "Sophie's been doing it too."

"Garcia, I need you to get into the servers for Lanmark Engineering." Spencer called out as he literally vaulted down to the bull pen.

"Um, okay, that is so not legal." She said, even as her fingers were flying. "And is going to take quite some time because they have…oh do they ever have good security."

"Try this." He came back in with a thumb drive.

She took it and booted it and…"Okay, I do not want to know why you have admin access to Lanmark Engineering servers. What am I looking for?"

"Every male victim, see if they all co-owned a patent or were working on a research project for them."

Garcia's fingers flew. "Yep, that's the connection. Every one of them had some kind of something for Lanmark, including you."

"Oh my God," JJ turned to Spencer. "How many people from Lanmark were at the wedding?"

None of them had ever seen Spencer that pissed. Not even at his father. Not even at the Sheriff who went after Owen Savage or Samantha Malcolm's father, or when he was being question by committees after what happened to Hotch or to Emily; not ever. "Only one," he headed back down to the bull pen for his vest and gun. "JJ, you stay here; Will, coming with?"

"Hell yes," Will replied.

"What? No, I am not staying here!" JJ insisted.

"Yes you are. Remember what Hotch said, one of us has to stay behind." He stopped and gently cupped her head. "If Will and I don't make it back you need to be here for Henry and Sophie." With that he kissed her, deep for all it was quick. "I love you." Then he was heading for the elevator, Will at his side.

And all JJ could do was stare after them.

**Spencer**

Lanmark Engineering occupied much of one of those sleek steel and glass buildings downtown. As he headed in to the CEO's office, in his vest, gun drawn, Will much the same at his side, a SWAT team behind him, he had to admit that he was bone-deep pissed about the whole thing. He had never before wanted to beat the living crap out of an UnSub as much as he wanted to beat down Ben Silverton, and not just because he had taken Henry and Sophie.

"Y'all want to tell me why you brought the bomb squad?" Will asked on the way up.

"Lanex 140," Spencer replied.

"What?" But then they were at the right floor and heading in, quartering, one group going ahead while the other covered, leapfrog style, until they reached the presidential suite. There they paused at the doorway, counted to three, and Spencer and Will went in first, in case of the children.

Big mistake, the door slid closed right behind them.

It was a very sleek sort of office, lots of black, shiny surfaces and a big window to show the view of the Capitol. Standing in front of said window, was Ben Silverton. In one hand he held a cell phone, in the other a bluish-greenish brick of something about the size of a healthy dictionary, or maybe a cinder block. It had a cell phone attached to it somehow, and what was obviously a blasting cap, "Guns down, gentlemen." He said. "My boom-boom is bigger."

Spencer very slowly bent and lowered his gun before sliding it out to the middle of the floor. "Do what he says." He told Will.

"You think he'll do it?" Will asked.

"I know how he used to react to prison movies." Spencer told him. "I think he'll do anything to avoid going."

Will slowly lowered the gun, much as Spencer had. In response Ben tossed the large lump of what have you off to one side, out of everyone's reach, but kept the cell phone, "That C4?"

"No, Lanex 140, it's a high-powered explosive, about a hundred and forty times more powerful than standard C4." His eyes flickered. "It looks like it has a cell phone as the trigger; it will set off the blasting cap it needs to go off when he makes a call." He said, just a mite too loud

"And how do you know that?"

"I designed it." His eyes flickered. Now that they both had their guns on the ground he turned to Ben. "Okay, Ben, where are the kids?"

"They're around. It's unfortunate that someone killed the best forger in DC a few years back, I had to send to Boston to get Miss Sophia her passport, or else we would be at the airport by now. But as soon as I get word that the courier is downstairs I'll be leaving you two here and taking her into the future with me."

"So that's what this was all about?" Will asked. "You wanted Sophie all along?"

"No, it was about R&D." Spencer told him, not taking his eyes off Ben. "He was trying to breed a new generation of research scientists, preferably Asperger's co-morbid with Hyperlexia so they could get to work before their teens."

"All right, but why kill the parents?" He looked at Will, a look to get slowly moving over that way.

"Because they were exhausted," Ben told him. "One, maybe two ideas at best, they had to spend so much mental energy dealing with past trauma they were never able to reach their potential. And none of them wanted to reproduce, always afraid of carrying on the past. Especially you, Spencer, always so ridiculously afraid of becoming schizophrenic like your mother, or passing it along."

"It was a legitimate concern. My mother wasn't an abuser, she is mentally ill. She's not responsible for her actions, you know that."

"Oh, so you always told me. But I met her again at your wedding; she seemed fine to me, just as she always had. Nice work, getting her committed and drugged as a form of revenge."

Spencer took a very deep breath and pushed the anger back. "Mom was off her meds, she wanted some clarity to remember the wedding."

"Right, whatever, the point was that you did your best work back at CalTech. And then what did you do with your life; the public sector? What a waste. And all the other crap you had to deal with, addiction, getting shot, all of it. So I figured I'd have you give it another go. Well, have your genes give it another go."

"And the same with the others?"

"Proof of concept trials; granted none of them came up with the combination of traits I was hoping for, but I was able to prove that if you set up the situation correctly you could force them to breed. Even you," he chuckled. "Those lessons with Tatyana really paid off. Unfortunately that little brood mare you favored was already knocked up by this bonehead, or so I thought when the baby showed up three weeks early. I added testing for pre-existing pregnancy to the mix and tried again, just to be certain of the concept. I figured in another year or so I'd give you two another go, give her a chance to recover the bone mass."

Once again Spencer noticed something out of the corner of his eye, "Right. But why take Henry?"

"Well, you managed to conceal little Miss Sophie's parentage so well I figured you must have done it before. But, no, Henry really isn't yours. At least he's neurotypical, if rather bright for his age."

"Yep, Henry is just a normal kid." Spencer's voice raised a trifle. "His father has been teaching him to throw a mean fastball. You used to be into baseball, right? Still have that ball around?"

"The Ted Williams ball? Yeah, it's over on the wall. It's a fun hobby, but I'm willing to give it up in favor of the future. Miss Sophie is going to lead the life of a princess, I promise you. I just can't wait to see what her mind will do."

"On that I have to agree. Now!" With that a round, white something flew at Ben, causing him to flinch and hit speed dial on the phone. As he did Will flew at him, knocking him to the ground, as Spencer flew left at someone else….

And a loud bang shook the room.


	33. Chapter 33

**Chapter thirty-four**

**Spencer**

He looked up and around from where he'd shielded Henry, covering him with his body to protect him from the blast. "You okay?" He asked him.

Henry nodded. He was just fine.

Spencer let him up, moved past the shredded and smoldering file cabinet to where Will had Ben Silverton on the floor and in handcuffs. Ben squealed in pain, causing Will to check a lump under his shirt. "Looks like Mrs. Nelson did wing him after all." Will said. "Good choice in nannies."

"We'll be keeping her." Spencer agreed. He looked down at Ben. "I can't believe you used a simple blasting cap on that thing. What the hell were you thinking?"

"I didn't have enough time; it was all I had on hand." Ben replied. "Why didn't the Lanex go off?"

"I pulled the blasting cap out." Henry said, proudly.

Will blinked at his son. "Excuse me?"

"I pulled the blasting cap out." Henry repeated. "Uncle Spencer told me how stuff like C4 and Lanex worked when we were watching Mythbusters, the one where they tried to set off C4 with a microwave. When he said it was a simple blasting cap I knew if I pulled it out the explosive wouldn't go off. I put it in the metal drawer because it looked like the closest thing to Jaime's flammable stuff locker. And then he started talking about baseball and I knew I could use the fastball you showed me to distract the bad guy long enough for you to jump him."

"I'll be dammed." Will shook his head. "Guess it's a good thing you got two daddies after all."

"I'm not going to jail." Ben said into the floor. "With the number of lawyers I have I'll be out in time for dinner."

"I don't think so Ben." Spencer went and retrieved the plastic explosive, rubbing a bit of it between his fingers. "This is military grade."

"So?"

"So exploded at this height it would have taken out a twelve block radius, including Union Station, DC Metro and possibly even the Capitol." He looked over at Will. "That sounds like WMD to me. Think we can call that a terrorist act?"

"Probably, you really want to go there?"

Spencer nodded. "Know why he wanted a child with that particular combination of traits so badly? Profit, he makes money helping socially inept geniuses bring ideas to market. But none of the ones he worked with were innovating fast enough to give Lanmark the growth he wanted." He turned to the man on the floor. "We had this discussion, Ben; constant growth is the philosophy of the cancer cell."

"And the free market; you never did get your head out of the clouds, did you Spencer?"

"I always had more important things to do, like stopping monsters like you." Behind them the SWAT team finally got the door open and officers and agents came pouring in. "Get him out of here."

"Wait." Will said. "Where's Sophie?"

"In there." Henry pointed to a door in the far wall.

Spencer went over and tried it. "What's the code, Ben?"

"Kiss my ass, Spencer."

"No thanks; guys." He nodded to the SWAT team who came over and got to work.

In the meantime they hauled Ben off and Will came over with the bomb squad. "You really invented that stuff?" He nodded to the Lanex.

"Yeah, for my engineering doctorate when I was seventeen. I wanted to see how much explosive power you could get out of a strictly chemical matrix. I ended up with a format the Pentagon loved, and then Ben figured out how to sell it for us."

"Seventeen?" Will chuckled. "Let me guess, no girl?"

"Not at that point, no." He handed he Lanex off, reassuring them that it was completely safe now, just as the door to the other room popped open. He found his gun, and led a squad in.

The other room was an executive hideaway. There, in the middle of the king sized bed, surrounded by toys, was a fairly comfortable Sophia. She looked up and lifted her arms as they came in, "Dada".

"Yes, Dada is right here."

**JJ**

Later on she would have no idea how she survived that time. All JJ would ever remember were Spence and Will leaving, then some time later coming back. But as soon as he came through the doors Henry hit his running speed, "Mom!" He yelled out as he headed straight for her arms. She threw her arms around him and held on tight.

A moment later Sophie was there, and lunging from her father to her mother. "Mama," she shrieked, and then she got a big hug as well.

A moment after that Garcia was sticking her head out the door. "Yes Sir, they're all here, safe and sound. It looks like you don't need to come back after all."

"Garcia," Spencer called up to her. "Tell them we solved the Hackett case, he's in custody."

"Right, and you will not tell me the details until I get a glass of wine and some chocolate to calm down." Clear on that Garcia went back to her lair.

Will leaned against a desk and folded his arms, "So, now what?"

Spencer smiled. "Well, since we are technically on our honeymoon I figured we'd leave you with the paperwork."

Will chuckled. "Sorry, no can do. The FBI took over, remember, that means the paperwork is y'all's problem."

"I don't think I could honeymoon anymore anyway." JJ confessed. "How about we take it with us, go home, and I'll work on it while you unpack boxes after dinner." Which is probably against a dozen regulations but I don't care, JJ thought.

"Can Dad come home with us?" Henry asked.

The three adults looked at each other. "I guess, if it's all right with your Mom." Will finally said. "But I can only stay for dinner."

JJ looked at Spencer, who nodded. "It's fine with me." She said. "Since we have to do paperwork you two can order the pizza."

"Cool!' Henry all but yelled.

And they went home a family

* * *

That night Will stayed through dinner, but did not stay for the movie. 'Y'all need some privacy, I get that. I'll see y'all Saturday for softball practice."

Spencer ran back to the hotel and collected their luggage. They spent the rest of their 'honeymoon' at home, while he unpacked and they shuttled paperwork back and forth via Garcia and they settled and loved.

A few days later the team showed up, was briefed, shocked, amused and finally just happy that no one was hurt. Rossi grumbled a bit about Lanmark's stock price, but eventually that settled as well.

Mrs. Nelson insisted on coming back, if they would have her, which they would. But she also insisted that Morgan give her some refresher lessons in hand-to-hand. "That is not going to happen again."

Will continued on with DC Metro. "Give me normal bad guys, cher." He said. "Monsters like y'all hunt are too much for me." He settled in a neat apartment, stayed sober, started working with someone to deal with the lingering PTSD and worked steadily on getting his life back together. He also continued to coach Henry's softball team when Henry decided not to go for soccer after all. Eventually he even started dating again, quite happily.

The following Monday JJ and Spencer returned to work. And on Tuesday they went out on a case, to a dusty town in New Mexico. As they were in the air the UnSub killed again, which meant they went straight to the fresh crime scene. "So, are you going through with it?" Emily asked JJ as they pulled up.

"Yep," JJ replied.

"Is this a kind of revenge thing?"

"He wanted us to get married. He had to be all patriarchal about it."

"Actually I think that was Rossi."

"Hotch is team leader." JJ pointed out. "He could have said no."

They piled out of the vehicles, Morgan and Spencer going to look at the body while the rest of them went to meet the Sheriff right off. "I'm SSA Aaron Hotchner," Hotch said to the Sheriff, starting the introductions, "And this is my team. These are Agents Rossi, Prentiss, Morgan…." He closed his eyes, sighed just a little, his shoulders sagged just a touch, "Dr. Reid and Agent Reid."

The Sheriff clearly looked from the pretty, classy blond to the tall, skinny geek, taking in the matching wedding rings along the way, "Seriously?"

JJ looked over her shoulder at her husband, lover and best friend, and smiled, "Oh yeah."

And that was that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Musical inspiration - The Things We've Handed Down by Art Garfunkle/Marc Cohen.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a previously published story. Comments always appreciated. Thank you.


End file.
